Chaos Bender
by Konsaki
Summary: Ryoga finds a way to remove his curse, but Ranma complicates things by causing the spell to miscast. This sends the pair into an unfamiliar world... DISCONTINUED
1. Brave New World

**_Chaos Bender_**Ryoga took a few steps back to look at what had taken him the better part of the morning. On the ground before him, sigils and ancient script were woven together by his hands using large pieces of different colored chalk. The lone martial artist couldn't tell what they meant, but he could tell you they were important to him and his quest.

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki (Aka: Matt Nethken)

With a fanged grin, he remembered the instructions an old hermit shaman had given him, like he was standing in front of the old man right now. The first step was the easiest for the ever-lost boy; Find the place which was the catalyst for your curse...

For Ryoga, that meant the abandoned lot behind his family's house. Ryoga clenched a fist as he thought about how Ranma had ducked out of their duel all those years ago, causing Ryoga to follow him to China... where he fell into that cursed pool... Jusenkyo...

Shaking his head, the fanged boy focused once again, this time on the second task which he had just completed. The old shaman had given him two scrolls, one containing the words and sigils that lay before him on the ground with instructions on how to properly place them for his specific curse.

All that was left was to actually read the incantation written on the second scroll... Realizing where he stood in the quest to rid himself of his horrible curse, Ryoga had to stop for a second and take a deep breath. It was the point of no return once he started the incantation.

"Be warned, young wanderer! You only have one time to get this right! Fate favors are once in a lifetime..." he heard the old man's voice in his ears once again. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of the short haired fighter's face, reaching his jaw before he wiped it off with a sleave.

_'I've spent over three weeks trying to get here... It's now or never!'_ he said in his mind, psyching himself up for the event. _'Akane! Once I'm rid of this curse, I'll confess my feelings to you!'_ he continued, closing his eyes and clenching his fist once more. After a moment, Ryoga opened his eyes and hopped into the center of the circle of runes.

From his perch on a building in a neighboring lot, Ranma watched Ryoga hop into what looked like a giant circle for magic. He stood there in rapture as he saw and heard his long time rival start up a low and rolling chant, probably reading it directly from the large scroll he held.

As the seconds passed, the multihued runes slowly began to glow, one by one. It only took Ranma a few moments to guess what Ryoga was doing... and it seemed to be actually working. That was all the pig tailed martial artist needed to know as he jump off the roof and towards the spell caster.

"Hey, Ryoga! What're you doing?", he called over the chanting.

A vein almost popped on Hibiki's forehead as he heard the voice behind him. He had been at a critical part in the chant, but he forgot everything and acted on pure reflex. He dropped the scroll from his hands, choosing instead to reach behind him to the umbrella strapped to his back. The fighter then turned with rage in his eyes as he yelled out at the top of his lungs, "RANMA SAOTOME!"

The next few moments went by in the blink of an eye to an outside observer, but for the two standing inside the brightly glowing circle it seemed like a lifetime.

Ryoga was quickly shocked from his rage as he saw how close his arch rival was in proximity. His eyes lowered to the ground to confirm his fear, as he saw Ranma standing atop the inscriptions he had so painstakingly written on the ground. He had just enough time to yell out, "Get lost!"

Ranma on the other hand took Ryoga's outburst in stride. It wasn't like it was the first time he had invoked this reaction in his friend and rival. What did make him sweat was the feeling of dread he had when he noticed the wells of power rising up from beneath his feet. He only had enough time to feel the blood drain from his face as he saw something form above Ryoga...

Then there was only darkness for them both.

Just outside the circle, a feint hissing sound could be heard as the space within slowly folded in on itself, akin to a black hole. After a point, there was a slight pop and whoosh as air filled the space where two martial artists once stood. Now... a perfect sphere was dug out of the dirt, with no other trace that anything unusual had happened.

--

"Ugh..." a pained groan called out to no one. Only the sounds of chirping birds and the swaying of tree branches replied to the young man lying on the ground. After a few seconds, his eyes snapped wide in recognition... There weren't supposed to be any trees for a few blocks!

Jerking up to a sitting position, the world swam around violently, causing the well built man to bring his hands to his head in a futile effort to stop it. Overwhelmed, he groaned in pain again before crawling to a kneeling position to let loose the contents of his stomach. He stayed there for a few minutes, eyes closed, as the feeling of nausea and the world spinning around slowly faded.

Opening his eyes again, this time with more care, he grimaced at the mess he had made below him and slowly crawled to a nearby tree to prop himself up in a sitting position. The martial artist felt vulnerable... more than he had ever known in a long while. Ranma wasn't used to this feeling.

Looking around the small opening, he noticed rocks scattered around, obviously freshly moved and not from this area. Squinting at one that caught his eye, Ranma blinked as he saw a small flash of red rune winking out of existence. With a grimace, he knew that that was probably the last spec of magic that brought him here... where ever 'here' was.

Bringing his gaze around, Ranma jumped to his feet, almost falling back over but quickly regaining his balance. With death in his eyes, he carefully placed one foot in front of the other, bringing the warrior one step closer at a time. Then he stopped completely, breathing deeply before letting it all out in one go...

"RYOGA! Wake! Up!"

The body as Ranma's feet jerked and rolled defensively into a crouch. Putting a hand up to his bandana, Ryoga snarled at his rival but had his eyes flash wide before he fell right over as if paralyzed. A second later a scream of pain and anguish permeated the grove, silencing what few fauna dared to stay around after Ranma's explosive wakeup call.

After a few moments to recoup from the mental strain his brain was suffering, a fanged sneer reappeared on the yellow shirted fighter. "Damn you, Ranma!" he snarled up at his nemesis as he pushed himself to his knees. "Do you know what you've done!" he continued, voice rising with his rage.

"That's what I want to know!" the pigtailed Ranma yelled as he reached forward and drug Ryoga to his feet by the collar of his shirt. "Where the hell did you take us?", he continued, sweeping his other arm to the forest scene behind him.

"What are yo..." Ryoga started before stopping halfway though his question, puzzlement clear across his face. He followed the sweep of Ranma's arm, finally noticing the severe lack of buildings and 

civilization, replaced with an overabundance of trees and shrubbery. "Where are we..." he absentmindedly asked, his eyes wide.

Giving the confused fighter a shake, Ranma replied in an annoyed tone, "That's what I just asked, idiot! Your spell did this, so where are we?" Ryoga's reaction caught him off guard...

Wrenching free of his opponents one hand grasp, a scowl appeared where once confusion was blinked away. "The spell?! Damn you, Ranma! You messed up my only chance to get rid of my curse!" Ryoga threw a finger in the chinese clothed figure's direction, "How much worse can you make my life? It's been living hell since I first met you!"

Seeing Ryoga's next move, Ranma threw up his hands in a placating gesture, trying to stop a fight before it started. "Whoa, Ryoga, just a second! This aint the time to be fighting. We don't even know where we are for starters..." Ranma called over to his rival as he watched him slowly stop and rise without the umbrella he was reaching for.

The silence that followed spurned Ranma to continue, "Look, I'm sorry I messed up your spell. I didn't know it'd do this. Let's just figure out where 'here' is first, before we go at each other's throats. Ok?"

Mulling it over, Ryoga slowly nodded a few moments later and reached down again to pick up his fallen parasol. "Ok, a truce... until we figure out where we are... then prepare yourself, Ranma." was the even reply to the proposal.

--

A few hours later, the duo found themselves walking along a small river. Nodding to one another when they found it, they were convinced that they would find something, whether a road, house or village somewhere along it. For now, they just silently plodded along, giving the bank of the river a good distance from themselves out of unconscious safety from the flowing water.

Though they paused repeatedly to pick hanging fruit from the trees as they passed, the pair made good distance throughout the day. Even so, by the time nightfall came about, they were still hadn't seen any sign of civilization.

"Are you sure you're heading the right way?" Ryoga ironically asked his travelling companion as he leaned against a nearby tree. The flickering light of a small campfire illuminated the subject of his question enough for him to see a look of slight annoyance wash over Ranma's face for a split second.

"Look, we keep heading along this river and we're bound to find something. At least we can't get lost this way." Ranma replied, giving Ryoga a sideways glance. Actually, I'm kinda surprised he hasn't gotten himself lost already..., he silently added.

With a dismissing wave of his hand, Ryoga gave a slight snort. "Ok, ok. I guess we'll just continue in the morning." With that said, he threw another piece of wood onto the small fire. "I guess this is a good of place as any to rest for the night..."

With a nod, Ranma made himself as comfortable as he could be without the usual bedroll he and his father always took with them on their training trips. "Try not to kill me in my sleep, Ryoga." he said with a grin as he closed his eyes. He continued to grin as he heard his friend's reply...

"I make no promises, Ranma."

--

The martial artist threw his eyes open and flung his body into a roll as he dodged to the right. A split second later, his face and body was pelted with shards of wood from the direction he was diving from. Jerking his gaze in that direction, he used the near non-existent light from the near dead embers of the fire to make out a large hulking animal.

A loud roar resounded off the trees as the beast moved in quickly and swiped at the martial artist. Ryoga barely had enough time to bring his guard up as the giant paw struck home, the mass bashing the human out of the makeshift camp and into the darkness of the starlit night leaving only a surprised yelp in passing. The beast didn't know what hit it, when a yell counter called its own roar not seconds later.

"_**Moko Takabisha!"**_

A moment later a blue streak flew through the air, illuminating the beast just before it struck. Ranma blinked as the large animal was knocked sideways by the beam of Ki he shot at it. Did I just see what I think I saw? he asked himself incredulously before focusing in on the 'bear' that was turning in his direction now, eyes glowing.

Before either could move more than a few steps though, a yellow blur flew through the air towards the large beast in a great leap. Landing just in front of it, the person cried out a familiar phrase.

"_**Bakusai Tenketsu!"**_

The following explosion of rock and sand affected all three of the combatants, though in different ways. Both the 'bear' and Ryoga flew in opposite directions, with the martial artist hitting a tree at full force to lie in a heap at the bottom, while the bear picked itself up and turned tail.

As for Ranma, he saw and heard the beast run deeper into the woods, his gaze tracking it till he could see it no longer. Then, Ranma turned to look in the direction his battle partner flew in. Once he saw Ryoga though, Ranma's face turned white as a ghost...

--

A sigh left Ranma as he looked towards the eastern sky. He had been sitting there for a while, back against a tree, stargazing like he would on top of the Tendo Dojo most nights. He liked the way they consistently hung up there, eternally faithful to those who knew them... guiding lights for lost souls and adventurous people; both descriptions that he himself belonged to at one point or another in his life, sometimes both at the same time.

For as long as he could remember, Ranma lived his nights looking up at the black sky; be it in the middle of the chinese wild lands, the forests of northern Japan or even amongst the cities he sometimes traveled through. He became adept at reading them thanks to a couple of martial arts masters who thought star readings were a form of meditation, and to their credit it almost was to the pigtailed boy. He also learned a valuable lesson from those masters... as long as you could see them, the stars would always show you the way...

This last thought was what caused the martial artist to drop his head down in despair. Letting out a groan though the hands that held the weight of his hung head, Ranma let out a mental curse. 'Damn, none of this makes any sense! Where are we?!' he yelled out mentally.

He sat there, seething as the minutes went by. He tried to figure out answers to the multitude of questions that were flying around in his head, along with the ones his companion was sure to ask, but the frame of mind he was in quashed any attempts to make any sense of it all. The lack of success led to frustration in the young man, leading to even less success as more anger was fueled by the frustration, creating a vicious cycle. This went on until Ranma could handle it no more.

"Get a grip on yourself..." he chided himself in a harsh whisper as he lingered on the point just before having to let out a loud yell of frustration. He never reached that point as he took a glance at Ryoga, resting on the other side of a crackling renewed campfire. Not wanting to wake Ryoga up and deal with his companions antics at the moment, Ranma assumed the lotus position, settling down for a moment of self reflection to calm his psyche down.

Time passed, with the only sounds heard being the cracking fire that flicked rays of light around the small clearing and two people breathing very lightly, one in rest and the other in relaxed concentration... or concentrating on being relaxed as it was. Ranma, wary due to the night's incident, didn't let himself collapse fully into meditation, instead only letting it flicker on the edge of his mind like the dancing fire's light. This allowed him to stay aware, letting his sixth sense flow into the air around...

A moan floated through the calm air. Pupils contracted within his blue irises, as Ranma snapped his eyes open then squinted as the fire's light shown directly into them. Moment later, he had them open once again, taking in the surrounding area in a quick scan. The martial artist found it devoid of anything unnatural; barring the nearly destroyed tree, crater in the ground and scuffle marks marring the relatively flat dirt. He also took note of the growing light from the horizon, though it was at least an hour before daybreak if he guessed right.

He pushed that aside, though, as he turned his gaze across the flames that had died down as the time passed. Ryoga had captured his attention by moving, placing a hand against a head that swam in confusion. Seeing this happening, Ranma could only take a deep breath and let it escape in a long sigh, not knowing what was yet to come.

--

'What hit me?' groaned though his thoughts as Ryoga reached up with a hand to rub a sore spot on the back of his neck. Touching it with his fingers and slightly prodding, he could feel the dull ache of where he 

was hit... with what, he didn't know but it was at just the right spot to knock him out cold. With that thought, his eyes snapped open as Ryoga jerked his body into a sitting position.

The lost boy had reacted on instinct, knowing the last thing in his head was him fighting a very large bear that seemed to have it out for him. He winced at the quick movements, as a wave of pain passed through his head, but remained focused enough to look around for any signs of the beast. What grabbed his attention was the same that Ranma saw, the damage to the area around the pair and the sometime's rival across the fire from him.

From the look on Ranma's face, Ryoga could see emotions running across faster than his rival's fists during a 'Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken' burst. 'Fear, worry, confusion...' Ryoga quickly fired off recognition in his mind of the major emotions he could sense coming from Ranma. Furrowing his brow, Ryoga ran what he could remember of the fight through his mind.

He didn't get very far before he slowly started moving his hand from the back of his neck and brought it around in front of his face. Looking at it with large eyes, Ryoga started shaking a bit as thoughts tried to escape his mouth, but only slight whispered stutters came though. After a second, those faded into nothingness.

--

Ranma let out another sigh as he heard Ryoga stutter off into silence, seeing the shocked look on his friend's face. 'Ok, two things are going to happen. He'll charge at me over the fire or he'll faint... Please, Kami-sama, have him faint...' the pigtailed boy silently prayed as he didn't feel like fighting an all out two person war at the moment.

The minutes passed as Ranma watched Ryoga's mind process the information, his rival's face slowly changing from shock into a more confused state. 'Ok, Ranma, get ready! Here it comes...' the martial artist psyched himself up, almost imperceptivity preparing himself for the attack to come. His eyes squinted slightly as he saw Ryoga's mouth move but even with heavy concentration, Ranma couldn't make out what was whispered.

"What was that?" Ranma asked... or would have, but only got to "Wha..." before being cut off.

The next second, there was a flurry of motion as Ranma and Ryoga both jumped to a standing position. Ranma quickly pulled his guard up into a heavily defensive stance as he saw Ryoga move his arm up. What Ranma heard next caused Ranma to act on pure instinct.

"I'm HUMAN!" Ryoga's voice, full of obvious joy, could be heard rebounding off of the landscape around the pair. His fist pumped into the air at full extension, eyes closed with a wide grin across his face. He blinked his eyes back open when he heard something nearby, only to see Ranma lying face down on the ground.

Ryoga blinked again in mild uncertainty as Ranma made his way back up to sit with his eyes on Ryoga. 'This defiantly wasn't what I was expecting...' ran though the chinese dressed male as he eyed the human being across from him. Letting out a cough, Ranma frowned a bit as he spoke up, "Are you... ok, Ryoga?"

"Ok? OK!? I'm great, you idiot! I'm still human!" an enormous smile plastered on his face. "Check it out," he almost shouted as he thrust his hand out in a thumbs-up sign, "I've got thumbs!"

"That ain't all you've got..." Ranma smirked back at Ryoga. A second later his smirk died to be replaced by his palm hitting his forehead. He knew he had invoked the 'Saotome Foot-in-Mouth' technique. Seeing Ryoga's perplexed look, Ranma lowered his blue eyes and saw Ryoga follow suit.

"I've... I've got..." Ryoga stammered out going into shock.

Thinking quickly, Ranma spoke up, "It's not that bad."

Jerking his head up to glare at Ranma, Ryoga cried out while pointing, "Not that bad?! I've got BREASTS!"

Once he yelled it out, though, the gears in his mind finally clicked over and all the blood rushed out of his head as his face blanched. Ranma quickly saw Ryoga turn around to face away and let out a weak sound of disbelief. Slowly turning back around, Ryoga just stammered in shock, "I'm a... a..." though he couldn't push himself to finish the statement.

Ranma just massaged a temple with some fingers as he let out a sigh. "Yeah... I know... Sorry..."

On one side of the fire stood a form both of them knew, a black haired pigtailed martial artist who spouted smart-alecky comments that usually got him into trouble.

The figure on the other side of the flames still wore the yellow heavy duty shirt and black pants like he always did... Instead of Ryoga, though, Ranma saw a girl around his own height in Ryoga's cloths. Other than the fact that he was now a she, the only major difference was Ryoga's hair and eyes were a bright shade of green. Well, that and the obvious physical changes…

Ranma turned his appraising gaze aside a second later after taking stock of Ryoga's new figure. A quick view was all he needed to guess that the green haired girl's new 'assets' were on par with Kasumi's. Considering that Ranma always thought Kasumi to be attractive, he currently felt a little ill knowing that the girl in front of him was still Ryoga, his arch-rival.

The pops and crackles of the dying fire punctuated the scene as the pair stood within their own thoughts. Ranma took quick glances at the girl who was obviously mulling all this new information over. Her face twitching every now and then as mental tracks were completed or abandoned.

Finally, there was an exasperated sigh as Ryoga raised her fingers to her forehead. "So I'm a girl now instead of P-chan... at least it's an improvement." Her eyes flashed open a second later, glaring at the male observing her, "Don't think you're off the hook, Saotome! Somehow, this has to be your fault."

Ranma just grimaced as he scratched at the back of his neck. "Ah, um... You might be right, Ryoga." Hearing this, she just blinked in surprise as the boy continued on, "You told me that spell was supposed to get rid of your P-chan curse, right?"

There was a bounce of green hair as Ryoga nodded while Ranma picked back up, "Well, err, since I interrupted it..."

"...I got your curse." Ryoga finished, with Ranma giving his own return nod.

"Yeah, so technically, it worked..." Ranma added on with a weak grin.

"Then it whisked us away to wherever the hell we are now!" the female cried out, waving a hand to indicate the landscape that was brightening as the sun grew closer to the horizon. "And screw you, Saotome! Technically, my ass! I'm still cursed, just something I can deal with this time!" she finished, her green eyes glaring into Ranma's blue.

Taking a deep breath, Ryoga crossed her arms in front of her and sneered, showing the Hibiki line's fangs. "Plus, as some cruel joke of the gods, you probably got cured totally." Throughout this, Ranma just let the rage play out as he watched his friend and rival fume.

'He's got a right to be pissed.' Ranma told himself. Ryoga saw him lower his gaze before she heard him reply, "Actually, I doubt it, knowing my luck. I don't know though."

Hearing him chuckle a bit nervously, the girl raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"After seeing you after the fight, I thought it over. I'm either cured, stuck with the same curse or..." he faded off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Ryoga was interested now, lowering her voice as she urged him on, "Or what?"

Ranma let out a sigh, "or I traded with you..." Letting it out, he lowered his gaze to the fire.

"And you don't know which?" came the question. Ranma just shook his head, "I'm... a little afraid to find out which is right."

Suddenly, his sight was filled with the sight of green and yellow. It only lasted a fleeting moment, as by the time the sound of the quick movement filled his ears, Ranma found himself flying through the air. A second later, the sight of the river's flowing blue filled his vision as a yell filled his ears, "Let's find out!"

'Oh shit!', flew through Ranma's mind just before a great splash filled the air. Then nothing but the babbling of the river and the soft footsteps of Ryoga approaching could be heard. As the seconds past, the amber clad fighter's grin started to fade as she thought about the implications of Ranma gaining her old curse. A frown formed as she wouldn't wish that fate on her worst enemy, who she just through into the river.

She didn't have to ponder long on that as a great gasp for air came from the redhead bursting through the water. "What'd you do that for, you jerk!?" she practically screamed at Ryoga who was gaining her grin back.

"I figured you should look like a girl if you were going to act like one, Saotome!" came the jabbing remark.

Blinking, Ranma held a hand in front of his face, much like Ryoga did earlier. The feral grin that grew on her face, though, caused the opposing female to blanch as the sight and words reached her ears, "Great! Now stand still so I can beat the snot out of you!"

Seeing Ranma's visible fighting spirit and feeling the killing intent the girl was letting loose, Ryoga's 'fight or flight' instincts kicked in. A split second later, 'flight' won her over as she bolted away along the riverbank. "Hey! Get back here!" filled Ryoga's ears along with another splash when the redhead jumped out of the river to pursue the fleeing Hibiki.

--

As the sun reached its apex for the day, both girls found themselves gasping for air on a stone bridge that spanned the river. They sat, leaning on the small walls, both on other sides looking at each other through each breath.

Gaining a grin slowly, the redhead panted out, "Well, that -gasp- was a good -pant- jog..."

A groan could be heard from the amber clothed female on the other side, but before long a chuckle broke through. It wasn't long after, that laughs from two friends could be heard by anyone nearby. It died down though, as Ryoga pushed herself to her feet and walked around the edge of the bridge to the riverbank.

Smiling from the release from the frustration due to the exercise along with the needed laughter, Ryoga reached down into the clear water where a small eddy had formed with both hands. Drawing it up to her face to drink, she stalled as she saw flashes of her own reflection in the water. Shaking the slight blush from her face, she finished bringing the water up to her and drank deeply, repeating the process trying to quench her thirst.

Somewhere in that, Ranma had joined her in her own desire to rehydrate. She had only gone a couple of handfuls when she was interrupted by someone shaking her shoulder. "What is it, Ryoga?" she inquired, annoyed.

"Look at this! We might be near Jusenkyo!" an excited voice cried out, directing the redhead's gaze out into the water. Ranma had to blink and rub her eyes as she looked out at the sight. There in front 

of the pair of girls swam a small line of at first looked like ducks, up until you noticed the turtle shells on their backs.

"What... the... hell?!" Ranma could only respond incredulously, not believing her eyes still.

"See! Like I said, Jusenkyo might be close by! It's the only explanation!" Ryoga continued down that train of thought, grinning like an idiot.

"I don't think so..." the redhead replied with apprehension tinting her voice. Putting a hand to the side of her head before giving it a quick shake, she continued, "While you were out cold, I was looking at the stars."

"Yeah, and?" Ryoga retorted derisively.

"Ryoga, I don't know where we are, but we ain't in China... or Japan... Hell, I couldn't find a single star set to get any directions off of!" she responded in exasperation.

"Wait... what? Then how..." came the confused question as Ryoga cocked her head to the side.

Ranma just shook her head again, "I don't know. I say we still need to find a city or something." Standing up and looking at the road that ran relatively east to west, she asked her companion, "Which way should we go?"

Running a hand through green hair, Ryoga also looked around letting out a low "Hmm." A few seconds later, the fighter pointed towards the west across the bridge saying, "I'd go that way."

"Ok, then. Looks like we're headed east..." Ranma stated as she headed in the opposite direction the female had pointed. Ryoga growled and let out an indignant, "Hey!" but followed along, fully knowing the reasoning behind Ranma's decision. Knowing it didn't make it any less annoying though.

--

End of Chapter 1


	2. First Contact

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

The lost martial artists had walked the rest of the day, partaking on the rarer tree that bore fruit on the road as they passed. Some idle banter went back and forth as they made their way, but for the most part, nothing new could be hashed out by the pair. They just resigned themselves to walking the traveling beaten path.

As the sun had reached the tree line behind the travelers, sounds crept into their hearing from farther ahead. Ryoga had recognized what it meant first, green eyes flashing as a grin crept to the corners of her lips. "Saotome, come on!" she urged her companion on, as the yellow garbed girl broke into a run.

The redhead kept pace a step behind Ryoga, at first wondering what she was up to. Her ponderings didn't last long though, as once they ran around a large bend in the path the area opened up from the trees drastically. Ranma slowed down to a walk again along with the girl in front of her as she gazed upon the scene. What she saw brought a wry grin to her own face as she thought, 'Finally, something good...'

There amidst the clearing stood a small house which looked to be just enough to contain a small family. The girls knew it was occupied by someone, at least, due to the soft flickering light coming from a few open windows. The small chimney has light wafts of smoke drifting from it to disperse quickly into the darkening air.

To the side of the house, another building was given just a slight glance by the pair, but was quickly dismissed as a large storage shed or barn. Ranma gave more thought to it being a barn due to running her blue eyes over a few pens organized around the area. Her grin gained a more catty appearance when she recognized the sounds coming from the pens.

"Feeling homesick, P-chan?" Ranma purred in a low voice making a verbal jab at Ryoga. The taller girl just let out a warning growl, but said nothing in return. Ranma just continued grinning as she started past the pens and padded towards one of the windows, tried to listen to what was inside the house over the rutting and grunts of the pigs in the pens. Ryoga just stayed back watching, knowing Ranma had a better chance at not being heard.

Ranma lingered there for a few minutes, crouched under the window, hearing voices inside every once in a while. From what she could hear, she figured they wouldn't be hostile... she hoped. Moving towards the door, she waved Ryoga over and waited for the other girl to stand beside her before giving the door a slight rap.

After hearing sounds of movement inside, along with the distinct sound of metal being quietly slipped out of a sheath, both girls took a sideways glance at each other. They relaxed a bit when they saw the door open a crack to show part of a woman's face as she let out a questioning, "Hello? Who's there?"

"Um... I'm Ranma and this is Ryoga. Sorry 'bout bothering you, ma'am." She responded with a slight bow, trying to sound as non-threatening as she could. The green haired girl followed in suit right after. Looking up at the person though the crack in the door, they could see her looking them over in the dying daylight.

After a few silent seconds, the woman turned her gaze to the side and nodded slightly before opening the door some more. The sound of metal scraping on the insides of a scabbard could be heard yet again, but the click of closing left both girls a bit more at ease. The lady returned the looks, speaking up again, "I'm sorry, girls. There have been bandit attacks recently and..."

Waving a dismissing hand, Ryoga put up a small knowing smile, "No problem, we understand." Ryoga had closed her eyes while saying that and, as such, didn't notice the slight look of sadness and want that hid behind the woman's eyes. Ranma noticed though, but didn't say anything as the look passed quickly.

As she opened the door a little more, another figure could be seen. A young boy with hard eyes, no older than eleven or twelve, moved towards his mother. In his hands was the source of the noise, a sheathed dagger; his grip still holding tight to the hilt. The woman patted his straggly brown hair before putting a protective arm around his shoulders as she brought him in close to her.

"Sorry, but what are two young girls, like yourselves, doing out on the road and what brings you here?" the auburn woman asked of the pair before her.

"Um..." Ranma started out, trying to think of something to say, but Ryoga spoke up over her, "We're traveling... performers, but we got lost. Could you tell us where we are now?" The girl just let out a nervous chuckle, averting her gaze and scratching the side of her head.

Two pairs of brown eyes flicked back and forth between the girls as mother and child looked them over at that statement. The woman just wore a smile as she nodded. Just looking over the odd cloths and hair color again had made the information she was given believable. "Oh, my... I'm sorry to hear that. Well, just a few hours that way", she indicated farther down the path they were going, "you will find Quonju. It's the nearest town from here."

"Thank you for the help!" Ranma replied with a smile, happy to hear that they were so close to a town finally. 'Those few hours should take us maybe one with us running!' she figured, turning her head to Ryoga. "Think you can hold up?" Ranma asked with a grin.

Before Ryoga could respond, the woman waved a hand to grab their attention and dispel that line of thought. "Oh, no. I couldn't send you two out like that. It's getting dark out and I couldn't send you two off like that. There's fresh straw in the barn, if you'd like to rest there until morning."

"That would be great!" Ryoga said with feeling, thankful for any chance to sleep under a roof; especially since she didn't have any camping supplies, like she normally would. "You're very kind to us, ma'am!" the green haired girl said, bowing deeply.

"It's no problem at all", she replied as she stepped out of the doorway and into the yard. Pointing, she continued, "Over there's the barn. If you need water, the well is over there. It's not much but I hope you can get some sleep."

Bowing and saying thanks one last time, the pair turned towards the barn and moved away from the doorway. Ryoga couldn't help but see the boy's piercing eyes never leave them until they were around the corner. She just ran a hand though her green hair and sighed as they made their way towards and into the barn.

Flopping down on a pile of straw, Ryoga through her arms behind her head, eyes showing thoughts running through her head. After a bit, she looked over to Ranma, who was lying back on another pile on the other side of the barn. "So... Quonju, huh? Think we'll find out anything there?"

"Maybe... It's just a small town, from what that lady said, remember. If we're lucky, yeah", the reply came. "Anything's better than nothing..." Ranma finished with a yawn.

Ryoga just let out a low, "Hmm...", in response. A few moments later, she just closed her eyes and muttered a generic, "Goodnight." The only reply was soft breathing from a sleeping redhead across the room.

--

"Yo, Ryoga! Wake up!" came the only warning before the fanged fighter was given a rather rude awakening. An instant later, a surprised cry and sputtering echoed off the wooden walls of the barn as Ryoga jerked upright. Looking around wildly, he calmed down only to let out a growl at his assailant.

"Damn it, why'd you do that, Saotome?!" Ryoga demanded, clearly annoyed.

A clearly male Ranma made a look of mock hurt, "Sorry... Guess you're right. I won't wake ya with hot water again..." The act didn't keep up long as a grin broke through.

Ryoga just shook the water out of his hair and stood up, grumbling the entire time. As he brushed the few pieces of straw that stuck to his clothes off, he let out a halfhearted, "Thanks..." Tossing a sideways look at the grinning pigtailed boy, he continued, "You're still an ass, though..."

"Yeah, yeah. You're welcome, P-chan." Ryoga's intended target replied offhandedly as he dismissed the jab with one of his own. Turning towards the door to the barn, he continued over his shoulder, "Let's head out. There'll be questions if we're seen leaving."

Ryoga just kept grumbling under his breath, scratching the back of his head as he followed Ranma out of the barn and onto the road. Things were quiet as they walked; everything asleep since the sun had yet to even show light at the horizon. They made good time traveling, jogging some to reach true civilization faster.

They passed a few more farms on the way, each only slightly different than the last. Mainly, the layout changed more than any physical looks. It seemed like the houses were put together by using the same design. Either way, neither of the travelers gave them much thought other than the fact that they were there.

--

"Hey, Ranma..." the silence broken as the sun was rising in the sky, warming the clear morning.

"Yeah, I see. About time!" the reply came quickly as they slowed their running to a walk. Eyes darted around, taking in the details as they made their way closer.

There was no real town line, but a general feel that they had passed into Quonju, as the farms and houses just kept getting denser until a point. Looking it over as they entered, the town looked to hold maybe two or three hundred people, including the farms they had passed on the way. The buildings finally changed shape and building material, some using stone and/or a little metal, giving enough differences to the structures to keep the town from looking completely carbon copy.

"Sheesh... What's with all the green?" Ranma asked rhetorically, as they passed stores and houses displaying a green flag or banner. It seemed to be the major color scheme of the town, barring any other colored paints on signs or houses trying to be unique.

Ryoga just nodded, looking around as people seemed to be waking up and performing whatever morning routines they normally did. Though the pair saw and felt the people looking at them as they passed, no one bothered the martial artists. By the time they had made their way near the center of town though, that changed.

"You two! State you're names and business!" came a deep gruff voice from ahead of them. At quick glance, a tall man with short cut black hair and a couple scars on his face stood at around two buildings away. He moved towards the younger males when they had stopped at his inquiry.

Ranma and Ryoga glanced at each other before returning their gaze back at the man and the two sheathed swords he wore on his belt. He finally stopped a few yards from the Norima fighters, crossing his arms which they knew would allow him to quick draw if needed. "Well? I'm waiting..." he intoned with a raised eyebrow.

"The name's Ranma." The one in the red shirt replied before the one with the bandana continued, providing a basic answer, "Ryoga."

"And why you're here?" came the even drawl out of the unshaven man's frown. From the questions, they figured he was part of the police for the town or something. He even seemed to be wearing a uniform of sorts, being a green shade near to that of the banners they had passed on the way in.

This was all adding up to equal annoying in Ranma's mind. Plus the tone this guy was pushing was one that just irked the fighter. His emotions leaked through his speech as he replied, edges of his mouth turned down slightly as his blue eyes narrowed, "We need a reason to walk into a town? Got a problem, old man?"

It was quite apparent that the older male did as a growl escaped from his frown as he looked down on the significantly shorter youth. Hibiki just put a hand to his face and sighed in resignation. The three stayed like that, in a stare down, for quite a few moments.

The tense situation was broken as a calm clear voice broke through it like Ranma's Neko-Ken claws through… well, anything. "Gendo, is everything alright?"

Seeing Gendo's eye's flash at hearing the voice, Ranma's mouth grinned smugly. "Everything's good. Gendo, here, was just welcoming us to town. Wanted to make sure we're ok. Right, Gendo?"

The taller man just glared at the youth before turning to the owner of the clear voice and half bowed, half saluted before replying, "Yes... These boys looked lost, Elder Wasuku. I was just asking them where they were headed so I could... assist them in getting there."

An aged man chuckled, eyes almost closed in the wise face of the elder. The bright green robes he wore bore the visage of one in respect and power, but nothing even remotely edging on the level of nobility. Still, the long grey hairs that hung loose of his head and grey beard, along with the wrinkles on his aged face, showed experience and long life.

"Ho-ho-ho", the elderly man chuckled under his breath as he made his way over to the large Gendo. He barely stood, at his tallest point, to just below the shoulder of the younger, but worn hand still showed vitality as he reached up and placed a hand up there, saying "You do much good, young Gendo. Helping other people is a rewarding thing, no? We are proud to have you here doing your best, protecting us and helping those in need!"

A flash of guilt took to the guard but passed just as quickly as he bowed to the bent over Wasuku. As the elder moved past the man to look on towards the young pair with appraising eyes, Gendo moved into a place a few steps behind and to the side of the elder. His eyes still held a hard edge, but it was slightly different from before.

"And who do we have here?" the old man mused as he traveled his gaze from one black haired boy to the other. "Did you come all this way for the festival?" After he asked his second question, both Ranma and Ryoga just blinked in response before glancing at each other.

Ryoga shrugged at his companion before turning towards the green clad men and bowing slightly, "My name is Ryoga Hibiki and this is my friend, Ranma Saotome." After submitting their names again, Ryoga looked a little lost for a second before continuing, "Um... We didn't really know there was a festival..."

Trying to use the philosophy of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryo of adapting to the situation, Ranma jumped in quickly, "We'd like to learn about it though! Could we stay for it and maybe ask some questions about the history of the town, Elder Wasuku?" He silently added on, 'Maybe we can learn something useful, like where we are in the world...'

While the bladed warrior lightly grunted in disbelief, Wasuku just smiled. "Ah, such energy! The thirst for knowledge is rare in young people these days!" he finished off with a laugh only wise old men can laugh.

Turning towards the bearded man standing tall behind him, the elder spoke again, "Ah, speaking of the festival. Gendo, I was told that Reile needed help moving some barrels." His voice took on an inward musing tone as he continued, "I so do like the taste of her wild berry wine..."

Gendo looked thoughtful for a second, the taste of the wine running over his tongue from last year's event. It didn't stop the swordsman from giving one final warning glare to the two martial artists before giving a slight bow to the elderly man and heading off towards Reile's.

"Please, walk with me. We can talk while I keep my old bones moving." Wasuku called over his shoulder as he headed farther into the town. "So much to do, so much to do", he muttered to himself with another chuckle.

Ranma and Ryoga just followed for a bit in silence before Ranma spoke up, "Uh, this festival, what's it for? I mean, what's the reason behind it?"

"Ah, my apologies... Ranma, was it?" Wasuku replied, receiving an approving grunt. "It's the town's Founding Festival. Every year, we have a festival to celebrate the hard work of our ancestors who founded Quonju. Their efforts enabled the surrounding land to bear fruit, which we share in the celebration."

"There's singing and dancing, of course along with, what should be good food from the latest harvest. Hatoko is even bringing a couple cow-hogs for us, a rare treat. They will go well with Biaca's fish. Hmm..." the elder continued, getting lost in his own memories and expectations for the feast, both food and drink.

The boys following Wasuku could feel their mouths water at the sounds of good food, though they thought the old man must have misspoke when describing Hatoko's offering to the feast. Either way, they both were looking forward to the prospect of food.

The trio walked a while farther with the elder in his own internal musings before he snapped out of it, "Ah, my apologies, again. I'm losing track in my old age." Ryoga just replied, "No problem. It sounds like a good time!"

"Yes, yes it is, young man!" the gray-haired man laughed. "But the night doesn't truly start until the competition of strength happens."

"Strength competition?!" both martial artists brought up, their competitive natures twitching.

A wise smile was the response first response they received from the long haired man walking in front of them as he turned his head to look over his shoulder at them for a second. "Yes, we use it as an token opportunity to revel in the strength and toil it took our ancestors to cultivate Quonju from the bare land it was."

"Ah, here we are", Elder Wasuku said as he strolled to a stop in a large open area amongst the buildings. "This is where it will be held. We still have more preparations till it is complete though..."

Ranma and Ryoga looked around the area, which looked like it could hold a rather large amount of people, and guessed that this was the town square or something. Either way, they could see a couple of tables already set up and slowly filling with food, like fruits, bread and such. They had a fire going and meat being prepared for the spit off to one side. The area looked like it was built specifically to keep the fire controlled and for cooking rather large animals.

The most prominent feature was a statue in the direct center of the square. It was a tall stone statue that displayed three figures in different forms and stances. The one had an axe, which he held in both hands, one on the hilt and the other holding the flat side of the head. Another held a mattock which was resting on her left shoulder while her right wiped at her brow. The last one the odd one of the trio, as he held no tool in his hands, but stood there in a martial artist stance.

Ranma looked at the three figures, who were standing with their backs to each other on the round base, though mainly at the one without any tools. "What's the statue about?"

"They represent those who toiled over the years to bend the earth to their will. The settling group decided that everyone worked for the greater good of the village and the Earth Kingdom so it wouldn't be fitting to have one specific person for the statue", the green robed man replied sagely before putting a hand to his chin in thought. "If I remember correctly, they had a contest. These three won and became the models, one of the reasons we have the competition of strength each year. It just became tradition after that but everyone has fun."

'Earth Kingdom', stuck in Ryoga's mind. He had been all over the place, due to his blasted family curse, but he never remembered hearing that name before. 'Maybe we're just in a different part of the world... it's not like I've been everywhere', he continued as the fanged male scratched the back of his head.

The pair just looked at the statue in silence for a few moments after hearing that before the elder grabbed their attention once more with a clap of his hands. Turning towards him, they heard his voice, "Now, I have a request for you strapping young men, if you don't mind. Would you help set up for tonight's event? There's nothing like being a part of something if you want to learn about it!"

The pair glanced at each other, but agreed to help out. Smiling Wasuku continued, "That's good! For now, the tables and chairs set up..."

--

The day passed quickly, with the pair either moving chairs and tables or snagging snacks off one of the food tables. While they worked, they saw more and more people showing up with food or drink, adding to the tables which filled quickly. Most of the locals gave them odd looks, but were friendly for the most part; offering waves and greetings like they would their neighbors.

By the time the afternoon was passing the day, the square was full of children and adults. The children ran around yelling and playing while the parents and adults talked lively with one another. Ryoga and Ranma just sat back and watched the spectacle of the small town celebration.

The area quickly simmered down as the sound of a small hand gong rang through the town square. People looked in the direction of the interruption and saw Elder Wasuku along with a few other people on a small raised platform. The person with the gong stopped rapping it and set it down once a majority of the people had turned their gaze there.

"Thank you all for coming out this evening!" the elder spoke loudly to the crowd, gaining cheers back. He waited for a second before continuing, "As most of you know, we are gathered here to celebrate the founding of our town and the strength it took those before us to keep this town prosperous!" Again a cheer rose up from the gathered town.

"It's with that in mind that we show our will and power to continue on to the ancestors in our annual 'Test of Strength'!" the bearded elder announced, to a long cheer of the crowd as a couple of men brought out a sturdy table and stools. They were placed on the stand as the elder moved to the side. Once the yells had died down some, he sent out a call to anyone wishing to participate to head to the platform.

After a minute, the group stood before the elder who gave a quick explanation of what would happen. Two people would sit on the stools at the table and put their right elbow on the surface. They would then clasp hands with their opponents and, on the signal, would try to push the opponent's hand down towards the tabletop until it touched.

Seeing everyone nodding their heads in understanding, Wasuku quickly counted up the participants and settled the order of matches. Then he announced to the crowd, "One last thing, we will be rewarding our top three winners this year with token prizes of five, ten and twenty copper coins for third through first place! With that, let us begin!"

People cheered, laughed and jeered as the participants got up to the table to play their muscles off each other. Most of the matches were quick, like Ryoga's, where one outmatched the other easily and slammed their hand down in seconds. There were a couple in the first round, though, that took a bit to complete, as Ranma found out when he held back to just his muscle strength and Ranma's opponent resisted for around thirty seconds, until he ran out of energy.

In the second round though, Ranma found himself challenged by Gendo after Ryoga's match. Grinning wickedly, Ranma sat at the table looking across from larger bearded guard. "I'm going to wipe that grin from your face, boy!" the man promised as he set his well muscled arm on the surface while flexing his hand. His frown intensified, though, when the pigtailed youth opposite from him just put his own arm on the table, replying offhandedly, "You won't even make me sweat."

As they clasped hands, Ranma prepared his Chi to flood his arm. On the signal, he let his energy loose in an explosion. Gendo's eyes widened as he swore the kid's arm muscles wrapped around themselves a second before his own arm snapped down to the table like he helped it get there.

Gendo just left his arm there on the table in shock as Ranma let go and stood up. "Impossible...", escaped his lips as he just stared until his gaze was leveled to the winner's reply. "Just be thankful I held back, Gendo..."

As Ranma stepped over to the side, he frowned slightly even through the gathering's applause. He was kicking himself slightly for using his chi like that on the guard, but it did make him feel superior over the man. He just shook his head and watched as the contestants thinned out until it was only him and Ryoga sitting at the table.

"I saw what you did in your match with Gendo. Don't think you can do the same to me, Saotome..." the lost boy warned, with a smirk on his face. Across from him, Ranma wore the same expression as he placed his hand up in the ready position, "I wouldn't dream of it, Ryoga. I'm lookin' for a challenge, not a wuss."

They both prepared for the inevitable showdown as they clasped hands and waited for the signal to start. The people in the square could see the look of determination on the faces of the pair, but wouldn't know how much more than this match it went, not knowing the history between the two. At the signal to start, though, they all heard two loud cries of effort as they pitted not only their physical strength against each other but their spirit as well.

For the longest while, the youths were at a standstill, both straining to keep the status quo they held since the start of the match. Observers saw sweat beading up and rolling down the brows, faces and arms of the pair as muscles strained under the weight of their efforts. More than one person in the audience would swear they saw the very air around the boys shimmer as their Ki pore out to fight against the other's, but they just attributed it to their drink.

Then, with the mass community cheering them on, the arms moved finally. Both looked at the progress with grunts and fierce faces as the stalemate was broken. A second surge of Chi saturated the arms of the duo, trying to reinforce the aching muscles even farther. Even with that, the fall of the hand was a long and tiring process as they fought to bend their wills.

Finally, the arms were a hair's breadth from touching the surface of the battlefield. With extreme effort, the fight stayed in for a few seconds more, a last denial of what would be. The effort was for naught as they both heard and felt the pat of flesh on wood. It was over.

They just stayed there in stunned surprise for a few moments as the assembly was silent for the pair. Then, the crowd's ravings broke into the youth's minds and though the shock.

Ryoga let go of his opponent's hand and stood up from the table. Ranma was slack jawed as he traveled his gaze from his own hand to the standing yellow clad fighter. Flexing his arm, to get it working again, he stood up himself and set his face into a slow, but wide, grin.

Shaking his head, he offered his hand across the table towards his opponent, who took it in a strong clasp. "Congrats, man. Just don't let it go to your head...", Ranma said, shaking the sore arm.

Ryoga just grinned in return, "Let it go to my head, Saotome? Is that something you should be saying?"

The pair were interrupted by Elder Wasuku just after, forestalling Ranma's retort. "My, my... What display of youth and power! Well done, you two!"

Ryoga just blushed and scratched the back of his head, not used to praise of any kind, while the pigtailed martial artist just took it in stride. The event closed out with the elder handing both of them small bags with their prizes in them, twenty coins for Ryoga and ten for Ranma. They then walked off the stage to be patted on the back by many people, especially Ryoga for winning, along with drinks being thrust into their hands.

The party then fired off into full swing at that point, with food and drinks everywhere. People laughed as jokes were told in groups, stories flew here and there about times past or lore passed down through the village. Ranma and Ryoga ate, drank and listened to it all.

From what they could figure out, Quonju was right in the middle of path between two bigger cities. Listening to the descriptions of the two, Ranma and Ryoga decided to head to Gyon, which lay two days to the southeast. There seemed to be a library or school of some size there, which would allow them to figure out where they are without sounding like idiots.

"Head out in the morning?" Ranma asked, a slight flush from being unaccustomed to the drink.

The clank of the now empty tankard in Ryoga's hand to the table was barely heard over the rest of the ruckus. "Sure thing! We'll run the entire way!", he replied with a wide grin.

"Damn right!" the red shirted rival yelled out as he finished his own mug. Looking over to his friend, a smile grew wider over his face as he saw one of the local girls refilling Ryoga's mug. The look on Ryoga's face caused laughter from Ranma, as the lost boy blushed fiercely at having a cute girl near him.

It wasn't long after that, Ranma noticed his own glass being refilled by another of the village maidens. The laughter he had exclaimed at Ryoga's antics shifted from mirth to pure nervousness as she gave him a smile similar to one Shampoo would have given him.

Both boys found the same solution to the same problem as they both brought their mugs back to their face to take another swig. It was then, while Ranma was taking a swig that the girl beside him chose to lean over and run a hand across his thigh.

Almost instantly, Ranma's inebriated mind went through a checklist: 'girl, check; cute, check; touching, check... DANGER DANGER DANGER!' With that figured out, Ranma did the only reasonable thing he could think of doing in that instant, he slammed the mug back down to the table and spit the contents of his mouth out.

"The hell!?" a female voice demanded from across the table, followed by a squeak from a different girl's voice. The girl who had been filling Ryoga's mug just stared in shock as the boy she was enjoying the company of was now a green haired girl, who was staring daggers at the boy across from her.

Disoriented due to the situation and drink, Saotome had to take a few seconds and take stock of what had happened. "Shit... sorry...", he apologized. Ryoga probably would have accepted it better had Ranma been able to stop himself from snorting in amusement afterwards. Something about the look the girl was giving him, while dripping from the wine was humorous at the moment.

His outlook, and appearance, changed quickly as Ryoga flung his drink into Ranma's face in irritation.

A second later, there was a cry of anger at the table as the redhead yelled at Ryoga while the girls flanking them both saw a repeat of a boy turning girl. This time, they were well past the shocked and confused stage, moving well into the panicking and fearful stages.

The two shrieks were filled with panic, fear and confusion. Both martial artists paled at hearing them, easily recognizing that the night was still young...

--

End of Chapter 3


	3. Welcoming Party

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

The sky was covered with dark clouds, deep rumblings from far away rolled across the hills. A gust of wind flew thought the trees at random; the swishing of the leaves and groans the limbs released adding to the ominous weather. It was if the sky was calling out to anyone who would listen, a warning.

Contact and grinding of metal broke through the sky's symphony as if telling the sky that it was too late. "Last chance, just give us your money and you'll live, boy!" the voice behind both metal and sneer yelled out as the sounds of grinding metal continued from between him and his target.

The bandana clad male spared a glance at the two others who were flanking him, twin daggers and staff held between the male and female. A push from the one in front of the fanged fighter brought his concentration back to the fore, forcing him to ignore the sounds of battle behind him, as he pushed his umbrella up and high to break the Tai Chi sword from grind on it.

"Yeah, like that's going to happen!" he roared back, forcing the bandit to hop back of leave himself wide open. A second later, he had to dodge backwards, the end of a staff thrusting where his head would have been from his right.

Sensing something from his left, from the dagger wielding woman, he empowered his legs with chi and leaped a few meters into the air, flying away from the trio. Narrowing his eyes, Ryoga flicked them between the three in leathers, while reaching up to his head and grabbing his bandana.

Those on the ground gawked at the accent the boy achieved, but quickly that washed away as they danced around the flying projectiles. The male with the staff took a second to see what was being thrown their way; his eyes went wide as he saw the yellow and black rods stuck in the ground around them. "What the he-AURG!" he tried to get out before searing pain ripped through his side as he threw a hand there.

Seeing one of the three gripping his side, Ryoga chanced a look to his rival as he touched back to the ground. Ranma himself was dancing with a female and male duo wielding twin sabers. The pair were working in well practiced concert, keeping the red shirted aerialist from getting a moment's rest to regroup. Ryoga almost gave into the thought to run over and interfere, but was forced to abandon it as he heard running from his right.

"Persistent jerks" he mumbled under his breath as he was forced to parry a flurry of dagger strikes from the quick woman rogue. He was so fully concentrated on blocking her barrage that he barely dodged in time as she attacked low as the tai chi sword wielding man thrust right over her head. Ryoga grimaced as he jerked his head back, seeing the shiny metal slicing through the large bangs of hair that hung over his face.

--

Ranma was going through his own harrowing experience around the very same moment as the bladed duo continued their prodding assault on the pigtailed martial artist. As they worked in tandem from the start, he could easily tell that this fight wasn't going to be as easy as the two or three on Ranma fights he had back in Norima.

Back home, everyone had their own agenda and only teamed up if they thought they could further it by fighting together, but they never actually trained together. Nor did they cooperate on the non-verbal level like these two were doing. On some sub-conscious level, he guessed they were siblings based off their looks, but never registered it on his conscious mind due to the mass strain he was enduring just trying to dodge everything.

Dancing to the side, around another synchronized strike, Ranma grimaced as the sleeve of his shirt was sliced open. It was at that moment, he saw a fleeting image of Ryoga parrying a barrage of strikes wish his umbrella. A wave of envy rolled through the tired fighter as he wished for something to parry with at that moment.

"Now!" was the only warning Ranma had to bring his mind back to the fight as one of the pair called an attack. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for the youth as his mind strained to calculate all the options open to him as the strikes came closer. At the last second, he sprang to action; jumping in the air while forcing his body even with the ground, barely missing the blades by millimeters.

It was while he hung in the air battle changing through ran screaming through his mind, 'Ya can't stay on the defensive, idiot! Take risks and give 'em hell!'

With that, Ranma's face contorted into one of rage as he decided on a new course of action. An instant later, the youth let out a grunt from the strain of forcing his body into a spin while still in midair. Pain ripped through his arms, as the millimeters he had a moment before disappeared as if he never had them, his spin causing slices to appear as his flesh dragged across the blades.

The pain only gave him focus, his eyes flashing as he threw out a leg with the spin. A split second later, a sword clattered to the ground as a male voice screamed out in pain. These caused the air bound fighter to grin as he used the purchase from his foot in the man's dislocated shoulder to push away from the female's weapon.

Ranma's foot touched the dirt for only a moment, as his mind registered the new battle conditions as they had changed due to his risky maneuver. The female was in slight shock, the male was screaming in anguish while holding his limp right arm, dislocated at the shoulder from the aerial fighter's counterstrike. As for himself, he felt his lifeblood trickling down his limbs, but rejected the pain the shallow cuts gave off.

The moment his second foot touched the ground, he sprung back into the fray, refusing to give up the shift towards his favor in the conflict. The crying auburn haired man failed to register this through the pain induced haze; this is until it was too late. He had only enough time to lower his head towards the pigtailed fighter crouched in front of him before the pain in his shoulder felt like a pin prick compared to the new wave.

Tensing up his arms, preparing for the technique, Ranma felt the wounds tear open a little more as his muscles contorted. He forced it out of his mind as he thrust himself forward and up into his opponent, firing off a Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken burst into the poor bastard's face and chest with a spine tingling battle cry. The victim of the chinese amazonian style only knew flaring red as Ranma's barrage lifted his limp body off the ground before the last hit connected, blowing the body a few meters away.

The bandit slid to a stop on the ground before just laying there. Saotome couldn't tell if he was still breathing at this distance, but to be truthful, he didn't care either way as the swordswoman screamed in rage and advanced, her own cry for his blood gracing the air around.

--

Bent almost backwards, the fanged yellow and black figure threw his umbrella into the air. The bandits that were assaulting him grinned as he had disarmed himself; though their looks changed quickly as he continued to throw his arms back towards the ground. A moment later, he almost had brought himself into a handstand before his body contracted and thrust out.

The swordsman growled out, "Bullshit", in frustration as he saw what should be near impossible. Now only had the kid thrown himself into the air from a handstand, it was almost as high as he had been earlier with just a normal jump.

This time, though, both unharmed bandits brought their weapons to bear in defense as they saw the boy's hand reach towards the never ending supply of bandanas again. Both sets of eyes went wide as the expected attack never came, instead flying over their heads.

The female's ponytail trailed her head as she twisted to the rear, knowing the intended target. "Koga!" came the panic filled warning cry. The injured man had just barely pulled his hand from the wound on his side and had enough time to grip his staff. His defense was feeble as the bladelike bandanas tore at him.

He spun his staff and dodged some, but with him as the only target he couldn't block all of them. The woman screamed his name again as she saw blood fly from new wounds created by Ryoga's attack. She had enough time to breath in again as his figure stood there motionless.

She never got to see him fall, as the sword wielding man yelled, "Look out!" She didn't even bother to look at where the attack was coming from, instinctively dodging in the correct direction just as the umbrella wielding fang dropped from the sky right where she was a moment ago.

A second later, the ground beneath the umbrella head caved in leaving a crater around five meters in diameter. The woman blanched as the image of what would have happened had she not dodged rolled though her mind. Giving her head a quick shake, she charged the boy, giving a cry that could have woken the dead as she gripped the hilts of her daggers fiercely.

From the opposite direction from Ryoga, the swordsman did the same, both timed to reach the figure in the crater at the same time. He had enough time to take a full breath as they saw his free hand reach towards his waist. They paid it little attention as they readied their attacks as the fool just stood there.

Just as they were about to slide their blades into him, they heard the sound of cloth sliding on cloth. A slight feeling of pressure washed over the pair as the boy let loose a battle cry before starting into a spin. The next thing the attackers knew, their attacks were blown wide with the sound of three clangs, as Ryoga wielded his parasol in his right while a sword, pulled from nowhere, was in his left.

As Ryoga continued the spin, the female had to duck as the parasol, which had blocked her partner's attack, came swinging at her head. The other bandit wasn't so fast, though, as while the girl ducked and spun with the directions her weapons were forced, the male felt metal sliding across his flesh.

Twin howls of pain were heard as both males felt the blades slide through them as the ponytailed female finished her own counter spin, slashing out into the boy's side.

--

Ranma was having an easier time with only one of the duo still up and fighting. She was wild with rage, but somehow keeping just enough of her wits about her to still be dangerous. Even so, he had time to breathe now.

The only thing that saved his life was his sixth sense, dodging at the last second when a giant rock flew through the air where he once was. 'What the hell was that?!', he yelled in his head, quickly looking in the direction it came from. He winced as he mentally kicked himself, 'Shit, I forgot about him!'

His eyes twitched in disbelief a second later when the forgotten bandit stomped on the ground, causing another large rock to hop out of the ground before it was sent Ranma's way via a metal hammer he held in his main hand. The pigtailed fighter rolled to the dirt to avoid it, but quickly found himself having to handspring in another direction entirely as a sword swung at him. 'Great... I take one down and another one joins in... and this one has some weird techniques!', he complained.

Even with the rocks flying at him, Ranma dealt with the fight like Mousse was throwing hidden weapons from the sidelines like he always did. It would take him longer, but he grinned as he thought about how he was going to take this girl down... 'I don't really like beating up girls, but damn it, she was trying to kill me with that bastard!', he reasoned.

Dodging another rock, Ranma slid towards the female switching to another roll as she sliced sideways through the air. Once inside the woman's reach, he sprang up to full stance. Before the surprised bandit could pull her weapon back to strike at Ranma, he started to deliver another punching burst.

He was about ten punches in when he threw himself to the side. The next thing he heard was the sickening crunch of rock on flesh. A few meters away, Ranma watched as the bloody mess that was the woman fell to the ground with a thud; the rock rolling away, a flash of red with each rotation.

He only had to take one glimpse at her before the pigtailed boy turned his gaze to the hammer wielding bandit behind him. Getting up to a standing position, he glared at the man. The bandit just stomped the ground again, no emotion on his face, and sent the rock flying at the boy again.

Seeing Ranma easily sidestep it, he tried two rocks. That was only marginally harder on Ranma, since he only had to dodge twice. Then the hammer wielding man noticed that each time Ranma dodged, the boy was moving closer and closer. This made the bandit grin for some reason as he sent two more rocks watching as the quick youth moved around them.

Without stopping, the bandit quickly stomped up two more rocks, flinging them down the shortening distance. When Ranma was dodging the first rock, the man's eyes flashed as the grin grew. Ranma barely registered it as the man stomped the ground again, just expecting a third projectile.

He slid around the second boulder looking for the third one to be flying at him. It left him wide open as the very earth beneath him became his enemy. Ranma barely felt the rumbling at his feet in time to look down before a diagonal column of rock shot out at insane speed to smash into his gut.

The world became nothing but hazy pain as his defense was blown through, not having enough time to reinforce him stomach with chi. His body flung into the air, he tried to yelp in pain but all that came out was a bloody cough. 'Concentrate!' he cried through his mind as he forced his eyes to focus on the only opponent left to him.

As the blue eyes slowly trained down the dancing image of the weird earth controlling bandit, he noticed him move his feet again, only dragging his front on in towards him, along with drawing his arms in the same way. Not knowing what exactly to expect, Ranma flooded his body with chi, trying to form an even defense over his entire being. It helped protect him, but he was fundamentally unguarded as the attack came from the rear.

Another jet of earth jutted from the ground, slamming into Ranma's back causing more pain. Even so, he wasn't completely unprotected as he felt himself blasted through the air towards the maniacally grinning bandit as he swung his hammer from behind him to smash in to the ground towards the flying Ranma. The boy barely had time to figure out another attack was coming before another jet of rock came out of the ground.

His eyes went wide as he realized that this attack wasn't blunt like the last two, but sharpened like a spear point. Grunting under the strain, he forced his body to move. It was either that or be skewered. After what seemed like agonizing seconds to the boy, his limbs decided to respond.

Reaching forward at the last second, he placed his hands on the spear, finding purchase on a spot just after the point. Using that as leverage, he wrenched his body up and out of the way, quickly pulling his arms back in afterwards. From that point, Ranma's blue eyes glowed as he channeled all his ki...

The bandit had expected the boy to be a dangling corpse on the end of his attack. When he saw the impossible in front of him, he gawked leaving him wide open to Ranma's counter attack, something he might not have even been able to defend against even had he not been dumbfounded.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

--

Ryoga had twisted to the ground from the biting pain the woman had inflicted, trying to get out of range for any more attacks. Rolling up into a weak defensive stance, the teenager stumbled as the effort caused a flaring pain in his side. He groaned as he saw the bloody blades driving in at him again, causing the fighter to parry the blows with his umbrella as he danced around her.

The ponytail on her head whipped with the rotation of her body as she reoriented herself on her prey, just as they both heard a familiar cry to Ryoga. Her eyes went wide before flinching away from the bright light and explosion that happened behind the fanged youth.

Hurt and tired, he decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. A second later, the dense improvised weapon in his main hand was smashing into the woman's side. He watched in slow motion as she bent unnaturally with the blow before being thrown meters away to roll on the ground. He kept his gaze long enough to feel she wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, before he looked around wildly for the swordsman that should have been attacking any time now.

When he did actually find the man, Ryoga let out a long breath and set his umbrella to the ground before starting to put his belt back around his waist. The man was lying face down on the dirt, a small pool of red liquid forming underneath the body. Ryoga just winced as he found the injury on his own person, looking down to see his own side red with thick ooze.

He just took a steadying breath as the wind whipped though the area as a thunderclap sounded from far away. The sounds of fighting had escaped the area and only the coming storm echoed off the trees and hills. "Hey, Saotome… You alright over there?" he called out while turning towards his traveling companion.

He found Ranma kneeling over a smoking body, his arms searching through the various pouches and pockets the guy had on him. A quick glance in one direction showed a path of three odd rock formations and rocks strewn around the battlefield. That wasn't counting the two other bodies.

"Yeah", came the simple reply from the red shirted martial artist. Ryoga noticed him pull something off the body and put it in one of his own pockets.

"What are you doing?" Ryoga inquired, as he placed a hand to his side unconsciously. The reply was even and controlled, "Taking anything of use."

Ranma took something else from the body before standing slowly and making his way towards one of the others. The observing rival just shook his head as he looked over and walked to the crumpled woman a few meters away. Reaching down, he took the large cloth sash she had like a bandoleer across her chest, and tied it around his waist as an improvised bandage over his wound. 'It's not much, but it's better than nothing…'

--

The minutes passed in silence, the heavens continued groaning and whispers were the only sounds heard by the pair, save their own feet moving them forward on the ground. Neither of them had said a word since leaving the bodies lying on the ground. There wasn't much that needed to be said...

Ryoga just let out a groan as he looked down at his bandaged wound. The pain was easy to force from his mind, but he couldn't stop the slow bleed. From what he could tell, it wasn't deep, which was what was confusing him.

Glancing over at the opposing teenager, he could see the bandanas he gave for bandages damp with blood, but those wounds weren't as bad as his side. Still, the yellow clad youth eyed his companion. 'Something's off...', he couldn't help but think, but he shrugged the feeling away as they continued to walk in silence.

The light began to wan as the day ran on and the clouds drew darker. The path grew more twisted as the hills grew taller around the two martial artists. It became such as that neither could tell how close they were to their destination, but they should have been getting close... if the information they gathered was correct.

"It won't stop..."

"Eh?" was all Ryoga could think to respond with at first. Scratching the sideburns of his raven hair, he continued, "What are you talking about, Saotome?"

"I can't stop it..." Ranma toned out, flat and even.

"What's wrong with you? It was just another fight! It's not like this is new or anything!" Ryoga shot back, eyebrow twitching as he threw a glare to his side. "Huh?"

Ryoga's annoyed mood disappeared instantly to be replaced with confusion once more as his intended target for the verbal barrage wasn't there. Stopping his forward movement, he shifted his eyes around till he turned around. "What's wrong with you?"

Ranma's reply wasn't forthcoming. He just stood still in the road, looking at Ryoga with hard eyes.

After a few more seconds of silence, Ryoga yelled out, "Hey, Saotome! I'm talking to you!" Growling, he balled up a fist and stalked towards the silent figure. The fact that Ranma still wasn't saying anything was really getting to the teenager, his fist shaking as he finally got in front of his rival.

Standing right up in his rival's face, Ryoga took a deep breath. "SAOTOME! Say something you bastard! What's wrong... with... yo..." his rage died out to be replaced with shock.

Right as he had finished his second sentence, the fanged boy had placed his hand on Ranma's shoulder and instantly felt something off. The feeling made him stare into the silent fighter's face. What he saw there in the shadows of the raven bangs began to scare him absolutely shitless.

A flash of lightning showed that Ranma's eyes were vacant. There was no life in them. Giving him a slight shake, Ryoga whispered out a low, "Oi..." That statement was repeated louder as a trail of bright red trailed out of Ranma's mouth, a second before he fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

The wandering youth was immediately on his knees, running his hands over his companion, sending his chi out. "Shit, shit! Not good", Ryoga hissed out through clenched teeth as he realized the situation his friend was in.

He wasted almost a minute running his hands over Ranma's abdomen, trying to force chi into specific points. A growl escaped the male, "It's not working!? Why is it flowing all wrong?!"

Then it dawned on him that's what Ranma was trying to say before he collapsed. 'I can't stop it...' ran through Ryoga's mind as he glanced down to his own wound. 'He's been trying to stop the bleeding since the fight... but something's not letting us heal using our chi...'

A moment later, Ryoga was running full tilt down the road, a limp body riding piggyback.

--

"...melody was pure beauty. She could even make the...", the man behind the desk spoke out, while righting the same on the paper in front of him but stopped mid sentence. "Um... make the... make the..." he repeated trying to find the right words to continue.

Just then a flash of lightning and the following clap of thunder pierced the heavy rain which clattered on the roof just over the man's head. As the light faded back to just the lantern hanging above his desk, he snapped his finger, exclaiming, "Ah! That's it!"

He quickly bent back over the paper, brush swishing as he spoke out, "... the foulest torrent turn into a spring shower, the darkest night into a bright new daybreak." Sitting back, he reread the lines he just wrote down, the ink still wet on the paper. "Pure poetry!"

The door chose that moment to slam inward, as a man in uniform yelled at the top of his lungs, "Lieutenant Gau!" The eyes that were but a second ago reading the lines of words snapped up instantly at the intrusion.

"What is it, Private? It better be important!" he said evenly at the young man before him.

"Sir!" the private replied, snapping to attention. "The Sergeant sent me to get you! She said you needed to see something immediately!"

Gau's eye's narrowed at hearing that. Yukia wouldn't have sent anyone if it wasn't really something important... "Take me there now!", he ordered as he grabbed his rain slick off the wall, throwing it on in haste as he followed the running private.

It was only seconds before the private led the lieutenant to the eastern gate, which his squad was charged with securing. As they ran along the rampart, the older man looked down just outside the gate to see figures in the rain. When the distance had lessened just enough, he noticed that most of them were his own men, a couple bent over at one spot.

Seeing that, he jumped from the wall falling dozens of meters along the wall. Halfway down the wall, a slab of stone jutted out, going the same speed as Gau, who landed on it and rode it down. It ground to a near halt, just feet above the base of the tall structure, before he jumped off to land a foot on the ground, breaking into a run over to his men.

"Report!" he demanded as he closed in, wanting to know what exactly was happening outside his gate.

"Lieutenant, these two came running out of the rain towards the gate. When they collapsed, we came to investigate." a female who was crouched over one of the bodies said. Another uniformed person was bent over right beside her, looking over the second of the two bodies which lay a little away.

"This one's injured. A slash to the side... maybe victims of the bandits?" she continued, trying to form a reason as to why. She turned towards her commanding officer but was stopped dead in her tracks as she looked back down.

"Save him..." a weak but determined voice spoke out. "He's dying..." the girl the soldier was just examining pleaded as she gripped the woman's arm. As the girls voice died out, so did her grip on the arm, her hand falling limp to the ground.

Looking up from the green haired girl at her feet, the sergeant asked what to do with just a glance of her eyes. "Get the 'water healer'..." he ordered as he glanced over to the redhead who lay on the ground. The figure defiantly was female, but there was no one else with the pleading girl. He just shook his head as he figured she misspoke in her half-conscious plea.

"You two! Help me get them inside! Slow and easy, now..." he ordered a pair of his subordinates to assist him. Gau flew into a few quick martial arts stances as a slab of rock jacked up under the redhead before cylinders of the same material appeared in a short line leading towards the gate. Step by step, the slab started moving with more cylinders being made in the front...

--

'Warm...' a fleeting thought broke through the haze. 'Feels... nice...'

The wave of warmth left though, drifting off into the darkness. Without it, it felt cold and dead... It stayed that way for the longest time before it came back again only to leave once more in a teasing dance.

'Why won't it stay warm?' another thought came through the mists again. 'It feels... good...'

The next time the flow of warmth came though, a will held onto it, trying to latch on like it was a tangible object. When the feeling started it's predictable flow away, the will fought it, digging in to try and keep it around.

'No...' the voice in the darkness said as the will persisted. 'I won't let you...' the voice continued with more vigor. 'I won't give up!' it screamed out, pulling the warmth inward while it tried to escape.

Blue eyes jerked wide open as her body slammed upright to a sitting position. She looked around, panic evident as her red hair flew wildly with her head jerks. She barely had enough time to register that she was in a room of some sort before she gripped her head with both hands, a scream of pain erupting from the female as she fell back down.

She could barely hear it, but she recognized another scream. A girl was yelling something...

"Shit! Doctor! Doctor!", the voice forcefully sent out, rising in volume with each word. "Hikaru, come here! Hurry!"

A few moments of pain later, the warmth returned to her body and the agony ebbed away. The two looking down over the girl saw her ragged breaths fade into a normal rhythm as she relaxed. "By the moon spirit... Don't try and kill yourself after I worked so hard to keep you alive..." an older woman admonished the resting female.

"Yeah, Ranma... We were worried you wouldn't make it..." another female, though younger, agreed. "Don't push yourself, you need to rest."

Pulling her arms back down to her sides, Ranma took a few steadying breaths. Slowly, she cracked her eyes open, the images blurry as thousands of figures spun and wove themselves in her vision. A moan escaped the redhead as her eyes slowly focused, reducing the thousands of females to a pair, one on each side of the bed she lay upon.

"Ry-Ryoga?" a weak but curious voice asked out as her eyes landed on the younger of the two.

There was a flounce of green hair as she nodded with a grin, "Yeah, Saotome. I'm here."

"You had us worried for a while, dear." The woman on the opposite side of the bed spoke up again. As she spoke, her hands ran along the teenager's body.

"How lo-ng was I out?" Ranma groaned out as the healing woman touched a tender spot as she spoke.

"You've been in my care for almost a week, now be quiet! You aren't completely healed and need to rest!" Hikaru ordered her patient, getting irritated at the girl. "Now lay still or I'll knock you out myself!" she finally said as Ranma kept squirming under her hands as she felt for weak points in the girl's chi lines. The woman let out a breath as the redhead settled down at that.

"What happened?" she quickly asked one last question, flinching at the death glare Ranma got from the brown haired woman. 'I think that's all I can get away with...'

"That's what I'd like to know!" a deep male voice said from the side. All three females looked over, but the redhead was the first one to react. Seeing the uniform, she just sank her head back into the pillow and groaned.

--

End of Chapter 4


	4. Light of Healing

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

Ranma inhaled, breathing in the cool air, before letting it out slowly. Shivers ran down her spine as she curled up under the sheets, fending off the annoyance. It was too late though, as the images in her mind faded in the chill of the morning.

A moan escaped her as she slowly opened her eyes, flinching back under the covers at the room full of light. "Oh, I'm sorry, Ranma-chan. I really am, but I need to check you over again", came Hikaru's apologetic voice, only slightly muffled through the layers of sheets. The response was an incomprehensible mumbling from the girl under the sheets.

Seconds later, footsteps could be heard as the woman walked closer to the bed. Hearing the girl's mumblings the healer put her hands on her hips, clearly annoyed. "Why must my patients be this way?" Hikaru asked to no one in general, expecting no answer in return. Looking down at the bundle under the covers on the bed, she spoke up again in a warning tone, "Last chance, young lady. Either you get up or else..."

Hearing another grumbling that held the tone of a negative response, the woman in blue robes let out a sigh. "Alright, girly, but don't say I didn't warn you...", she replied regretfully as she reached towards the stand that stood near the bed. Her face changed from regretful to malicious though as she grinned slyly and poured the pitcher of water onto the lump of cloth.

What was a once an inactive lump of bed sheets quickly changed as the cold water hit. A shriek filled the air, as the figure in the sheets was thrown aside as Ranma twisted into a roll that took her across to fall off the other side of the bed. The redhead quickly landed and jumped into a standing position holding the bed sheets around her form, screaming, "What'd you do that for, ya freaking panda!"

The brown haired woman blinked and raised an eyebrow at hearing that, setting the now empty pitcher back on the nightstand. "I've been called many things, but that's a first...", she commented. She just watched the girl on the other side of the bed shake her head to get the water out of it, grumbling while doing so.

"Now, lay down so I can examine your injuries", the woman ordered, still with hands on her hips.

"What?" Ranma responded, looking from the azure clad woman to the futon she was verbally indicating. She jerked a finger down at it, "No way! You just soaked it!"

"Why are you being this difficult? Your friend wasn't this bad..." Hikaru commented, pinching the ridge of her nose between her index and thumb. Opening her eyes back up with a sigh, she saw the indignant look Ranma was giving her. "Alright... Fine! Whiney brat..." she muttered, clearly annoyed by the younger's antics.

Ranma's visage changed instantly from annoyed to interested as she saw what the long haired woman did next. Fluid movements in a graceful stance betrayed itself almost instantly to the learned martial artist. 'Why's she practicing Tai Chi?', she asked herself, eyeing the woman like she was going crazy.

Her eyes went wide a moment later, though, as she saw the unbelievable. "Wha... how..,", the red haired girl stammered as she saw streamlets of water snaking their way out of the mattress and sheets. Ranma couldn't help herself gasp as she something tickled her vision, causing her to see the tendrils snaking their way out of the sheets gathered around her as she looked down.

With one quick movement, Hikaru twisted her arms around, shifting her stance with the grace of a flowing river. In response, the tendrils shot out into the middle of the air over the bed, splashing together to form a billowing sphere of translucent blue.

With graceful movements, she watched the blue eyed healer seemingly guide the blob through the air. It was pure awe, to watch the water elongate into a snake like being as it wrapped and warped around the flowing woman's limbs and torso. After a show that seemed like forever, the snake dove into the water urn where it had started before the entire event happened.

"Amazing..." was all that escaped the nearly slack-jawed youth, her own blue eyes returning towards her saviors own orbs that shown the same color as the water she controlled a second ago.

The eyes which gazed back held a different emotion than the awe the girl held, as the older woman pointed back towards the mattress. "Bed... Now!" she commanded, clear annoyance in her voice as she expected no backtalk this time. Seeing that performance, Ranma followed the command quickly, still running the scene through her mind, trying to analyze and memorize it.

The redhead was done with the first analytical look in her own mind within seconds, mentally nodding at her first guess. With that, she looked down towards the healer, intent on asking the woman, but was sidetracked once her eyes found herself looking over her bound breasts. At that moment, her body fully recognized the fact that the covers weren't there and felt the ministrations of the woman's hands on her bare mid drift.

She felt warmth in her face, as blood rushed there, realizing the position she was in. Sure Ranma had been healed by Tofu before, back in Norima, but he always changed back to male form before getting aid... or at least was unconscious at the time. Not that she had a problem being nude, hell, she'd bared her female form more than her fiancées really wanted, especially Akane.

It was the touching that set her feeling uncomfortable. With all the perverted males running around Norima, from Happosai and Kuno to any other crazy martial artist who showed up to challenge or woo Ranma, she had had enough with the touching and groping. With male gropers, she pounded the shit out of them, taking after Akane on that, but with the females who invaded Ranma's privacy she couldn't do anything other feel uncomfortable, like now.

Noticing her arms were at her sides while the blue robed woman concentrated, the petite girl moved one of them to her thigh. She let out a breath in relief as her hand rubbed over soft bindings, which she felt up to her waist. 'Thank the gods for small graces...', she sighed accepting she wasn't completely naked, just mostly so.

"Don't worry, it's not something I haven't seen before", a deadpan statement flushed Ranma's face even more. She sent a glare at the auburn haired woman, who had her hair up in a loose bun at the moment, when Ranma saw the edges of her mouth quirked up in a noticeable grin. The girl lying on the bed recognized the woman was teasing her, but it still didn't make the flush any less.

--

"Alright, I'm done." Hikaru announced as she stood from the stool she had sat on during the exam. Reaching behind her, she pulled lose the clip in her hair, letting it fall back down to hang to her mid back. "I'm surprised at how fast you've recovered, even with my help."

"How long have me and Ryoga been here?" Ranma asked the woman who had started to walk across the room towards a small cabinet.

"Let's see..." the woman started, putting a finger to her lips for a second, rounding the bed. "You both have been under my care for five days, though Ryoga only took three days before she was up and walking."

Opening the twin doors to the wooden compartment, she continued, "Like I said, I was quite surprised when you woke up last evening. The last person I treated with wounds not even as serious as yours took more than twice as long to regain consciousness, let alone heal as much as you have."

"Yeah..." the redhead only responded distantly, running a hand through her loose hair. 'If you only knew...' she silently added.

"Hmm..." Hikaru mused to herself as she pulled something out, looking it over, "I hope this isn't too big for you. I haven't worn it in ages but it'll have to do for now." With that, she closed the doors to the cabinet and walked back to her patient.

Ranma just gave a confused her a confused look as the healer handed the girl a light blue fold over gi-like top. "Um... why are you giving me this? What happened to my shirt?" she questioned the taller woman, looking up from the cloth in her hands.

"Sorry, but I had to cut it off to examine you when you were brought in. I didn't want to risk any more damage pulling it off you and, at the time, I was more worried about you than your shirt." Hikaru replied before indicating something dark hanging on a wall hook nearby. "I did save your pants, though you're, er, underclothing was beyond my willingness to help", she continued, coughing slightly as she looked away from the girl at one part.

"Umm... Thanks, ah..." Ranma said, bashfully. 'I don't even know her name... I've been an ass too...', the martial artist mentally kicked herself.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Hikaru, one of the healers here in Gyon, though I'm probably the youngest. I was the closest to the gate you and your friend came to", she explained, answering questions before they were asked. She saw the girl putting on the blue top carefully, testing her range of movement while she did so.

"Thank you, Hikaru-sensei", Ranma replied more formally, as she finished tying the top flap down at her side. She moved her arms some, feeling the room she had in the top that was around three sizes too big for her. 'I should be fine if I go male in this and it's light enough to not hamper me in this form...', she appraised it, feeling the cloth slide over her form as she moved, the short sleeves billowing in their overly wide diameter.

"Um... Thanks for the shirt. It's real nice."

"It's no problem. It's a little too plain and traditional for my tastes, but I wore it when I was younger and just kept it when I moved here", the elder female said, smiling brightly. If Ranma had to guess, which she did on this, she would have placed Hikaru in her mid to late twenties. "You can keep it. I don't really know why I hung onto it for so long", the lady continued with a slight shrug.

"By the way, you're friend's shirt was ruined too. She got cut up pretty bad and ripped the wounds farther when she carried you here, from what I can make out." Hikaru explained, with a frown as she crossed her arms when talking about the wounds.

"Where is Ryoga?" Ranma asked as she slid towards the edge of the bed and put her feet to the floor. "Er... also, can I put on some pants, Hikaru-sensei?" she asked with a nervous chuckle. Tofu-sensei had a habit of hitting Ranma's pressure points if he tried to overexert himself, so the martial artist quickly learned to ask around the doctor.

"Oh, sorry, Ranma. Yes, here you go." the healer replied, slightly embarrassed at keeping her patient in the state of undress that long. "Just take it easy for the next day or so. You can go walking, but nothing strenuous. You aren't completely healed from your internal injuries yet", Hikaru ordered and explained as she handed the redhead her pants back, watching the girl's movements as she slid them on.

"As for Ryoga, she's been helping me out by heading down to the market and doing other small errands for me. Oh, that reminds me, since things have been rather light recently; you both can share the room here for a couple of days while I watch over you."

Ranma nodded, though something was on her mind after hearing Hikaru's last statement. "Uh, thank you again, Hikaru-sensei..." she said slowly. "So... Ryoga's been running errands for you?"

"Yes... is there a problem, Ranma?" the blue robed woman replied, raising an eyebrow.

"And... she's come back since then, right?" the redhead continued carefully.

"... Yes..." the reply came slowly, asking what the girl was getting at without actually saying it.

"Uh... Ryoga usually has the... ah, ability... to get lost... easily." Ranma explained, trying to not sound crazy.

"We'll, she needed help getting to the market the first time, but she's been good since then. I still don't see what you're getting at, Ranma."

"We are talking about the same Ryoga here, right?" Ranma questioned the woman in disbelief.

"Oh, come on. Green hair, yellow shirt... or used to wear one. Black pants like yours. Sound about right?" Hikaru asked, starting to get a little irritated at the situation. "Now, again, what's going on?"

"Ok, ok." Ranma said as she held up her hands. "I'm not joking around, but Ryoga usually gets lost, real lost, trying to find easy to find places or following easy directions." As she said this, she saw the healer's reaction and continued before anything was said.

"Alright, for example, h... She got lost trying to meet with me in the empty lot right behind her house. It took her a week to find it..."

"Oh come on! That's ridiculous and rude to talk about your friend like that!" Hikaru replied in a disapproving voice, not believing the redhead in the slightest.

"I'm serious!" Ranma cried out, before continuing, "Ask Ryoga yourself. She got lost in a room with one door once!"

"Now I know you're making this up! You should be ashamed of yourself!" the older woman exclaimed, reprimanding the younger female. "Making up stories and talking about your friend like that!" she continued with a frown and glare.

"Actually... she's telling the truth."

Hearing that, both Hikaru and Ranma jerked their eyes over towards the door. Ryoga stood there in a light tan shirt, which loosely resembled her old yellow one. Blinking at the gaze Hikaru was giving her, she blinked. "What? Ranma doesn't usually lie."

"I don't think I saw any head injuries... are you two sure you didn't hit them or something? People don't get lost in a room with one door..." the healer continued in disbelief, switching her gaze from Ranma to Ryoga.

"Hey, I'm not proud of it, Hikaru-sensei, but I usually have a really bad sense of direction", the green haired girl replied, rubbing the back of her neck.

Ranma snorted, "That's like saying Akane's cooking only tastes bad, instead of being life threatening bio-waste."

There was a flash of anger in Ryoga's green eyes as she jerked her hand around and made a threatening fist at the redhead. "Hey, don't talk about Akane-san's cooking like that, Saotome!"

"GIRLS!" came the interrupting yell, squashing the squabble before it started. "There will be no fighting in my house, is that understood!"

Two defeated teenagers replied in unison, "Sorry, Hikaru-sensei."

The woman just let out a sigh as she put two fingers around the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "Now... Ryoga, I have some things to do. Now that Ranma's awake, you are free to talk with her", she said, with emphasis on 'talk'. "Just remember that now that you're both awake, Lieutenant Gau needs to speak with you soon. I'm going to send a messenger for him in just a second."

Seeing the look on Ranma's face, she reassured the girl, "Don't worry. He's a good man and just wants to know what happened. I mean, you did show up at his gate in the pouring rain almost dead..." She just left that line of talk as she took a few steps towards the door.

"Remember, Ranma. Take it easy", she reiterated to the redhead as she walked out the door, which Ryoga just moved away from, and closed it.

--

The room was silent, save for the sounds of Ryoga moving to a chair and sitting down, along with the voice of the city stirring in the morning air through the window. It stayed this way for a minute or so, the martial artists trying to think of a way to break the silence without inciting a fight between the two or sounding out of character.

"So... you carried me here, huh? Hikaru-sensei says if you hadn't I'd have died... thanks", Ranma finally said in a low voice.

"It was nothing... You'd have done the same", the green haired girl replied in the same tone before letting out a groan. "Damn, Saotome! You scared the shit out of me! We've both been beat to hell before, but neither of us has been that bad off..." she continued with more emotion, a grimace marring her face.

"I don't remember much after the fight, Ryoga. I just know whatever that rock bastard did hurt... bad", the redhead replied, putting a hand to her stomach and flinching. "What happened?"

"You mean after we searched the bodies?" Ryoga asked, with the bad taste in her mouth evident in her tone. Seeing Ranma ignore it, she shook her head and answered, "We continued down the road. Then, you said 'It won't stop' and 'I can't make it stop'. I didn't understand till you collapsed and I felt your chi fading. You don't know how helpless I felt when I couldn't do anything, not a damn thing, but pick up your lifeless body and run as fast as I could!" the girl yelled out, the helplessness clear as the cloudless sky outside in her voice.

"Ryoga... are you... crying?" Ranma tentatively asked after a few seconds.

"Damn it!" the girl swore under her breath as she wiped her eyes. "It's this stupid body! It's doing this on its own!" she said as she continued to wipe at the tears in her eyes. "Damn it!" she swore again.

Ranma didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned. Nothing seemed to make much sense since the spell misfire. She chose to take the latter route, trying to avoid a fight for Hikaru-sensei's sake. "How come you didn't change back?" she asked, making sure not to use an inciting tone.

"Cause I didn't want to get chased out of town like last time we changed!" Ryoga screamed out. "Running from a paranoid and armed mob isn't my idea of a freaking fun night! Remember, they thought we were demon spirits when we tried to explain and showed the change back!" she continued, speaking in a loud voice but not yelling. The tone shifted again, more of a low challenging one, when she finished with, "Or were you too drunk to remember, Saotome?"

"Hey, you weren't turning down those drinks either, Ryoga!" came the defending reply, with a slight bite to it, eyes narrowing.

"So?! You were the one who saw fit to spray me down, for no reason! What was up with that?!" the fanged girl showed her namesake in a growl. The dam was busted and grievances were flowing out like water.

"That girl was rubbin' all up all over me! Damn it, I got nervous! At least I have an excuse, you flung your drink in my face! We could have explained it easy if ya hadn't!" came the heated retort.

The tense situation hung in the air as the males turned female glared at each other; one from the chair, the other sitting on the side of the bed. Their breaths ragged from the heated exchange, as they both tried to catch their breath and take hold of their wild emotions.

Finally breaking the stalemate, Ranma let out a shaky sigh, looking towards her feet. "I'm sorry... Happy?" she said in volume just above a whisper. "I'm sorry for messing up that spell. I'm sorry for your curse. I'm sorry for messing up the festival. I'm sorry for... almost dying..." she spilled out, in a torrent of unusual action for the Saotome. "Are you happy now?", she asked, somehow lowering her voice even more while still having it audible.

Ryoga was too stunned to respond, looking on at the redhead in awe. She had known and fought Ranma for most of her life and knew it was a very rare situation which caused Ranma Saotome to actually apologize for something. Especially with so much emotion behind it... Ryoga was silent still as she saw the shorter female raise a hand to her face.

Ranma's eyes were wide as her head hung, touching her face with her hand. Pulling it away, it glistened with wetness. "What's going on?" she asked in the same above whisper tone. "What the hell is going on?" she asked again, in a higher volume, looking up towards Ryoga, who saw the lines of tears on the redhead's cheeks.

"Nothing's made sense since we woke in the woods... I can't find any familiar stars, we keep seeing freak animals and now, to make it worse, I can't control my emotions in girl form!? What god's sick joke is this!?" the redhead asked.

"I don't know, Saotome..." Ryoga answered in a sober voice.

"Also, what about these weird techniques? That bandit was using the ground as a weapon! The freaking rock beneath our feet! I ain't seen anything like it before!" Ranma exclaimed, tirade in full force. "And Hikaru-sensei can do the same thing with water? Tai Chi can't do that but it did!"

"Actually", Ryoga started, breaking the redhead out of her rut, "I already asked Hikaru-sensei about that." Looking at Ranma, the girl found herself the target of complete attention. "She said it was something called, Waterbending. From what happened in the fight, it sounds like he used Earthbending to do that, from what she explained."

Ranma just cocked her head to the side and let out a confused, "You're crazy... I ain't heard of anything like that or else Pop would have ran straight for it during my training."

Ryoga just threw her hands in the air, saying, "Hey, I'm just telling you what she said. There's also Firebending and Airbending, though apparently no one's seen an Airbender for a long time." This time, she put a hand up in a 'stop' motion as she continued, "Before you ask, I already tried copying some of her moves. There's got to be a hidden trick or something, cause nothing happened when I did it."

"I guess I'll ask Hikaru-sensei later" Ranma replied, chin in hand. Her voice was full of thoughts as she wondered, "Why haven't I heard of this before?" Looking up, she saw Ryoga shrug, completely at loss.

The redhead shook her head, dropping that line of thought for now, changing back to an earlier topic, "So, you have a sense of direction now? When'd that happen?"

"Don't know... She asked me to help her out once I was healed and I agreed. Didn't have anything better to do while waiting on you and I wanted to pay her back for helping us out", the green haired girl replied with a shrug.

"What'd you do?" came the simple question, which was replied with, "Just going to the market for small things and delivering herbs to other patients. She said I was bothering her after a while and doing this kept me out of her hair and freed up her time for other things." Ryoga blushed a bit in embarrassment after saying that.

Ranma still didn't quite believe it, as she looked at her friend. 'The lost boy not lost... nah', she thought with a shake of her head. "Ok", she said out loud, pointing towards the window, "what direction is the window pointing?"

Ryoga groaned, knowing she was being tested, but looked at the window and the light that shone through it. "North", came the simple answer.

"And if I told you to head east?" the redhead continued, eyebrow raised.

"I'd walk through the door..." the reply came, though she stopped when she saw Ranma's face. "What? You expect me to walk into the wall?" she continued incredulously as she tapped the wall at her back.

A snort came from the direction of the bed as Ranma found humor in the question. "No, I'd expect you to use Bakusai Tenketsu to blow a hole in the wall and walk through that!"

Ryoga thought about it for a second before chuckling, "Yeah... Kinda sad, wasn't it... Hope I never have that problem again..."

"So, how'd you get cured of that, Ryoga?"

She thought about the question for a second, putting her chin into her hand. "Guess the same answer for everything else that's happened to us... A wizard did it", she finished with a wide grin which was followed by a rather loud snort of mirth from the other teenager.

A moment later, both girls were chuckling under their breaths. That lasted long enough for it to evolve into full out laughter, something both girls needed at the moment.

--

Hikaru smiled to herself as she finished walking down the stairs. "They needed that", she said to herself, thinking about the much needed relief from the stress Ryoga was showing. She saw it in the other girl too, while neither would ever admit it.

While she knew they weren't sisters, the woman couldn't help but think about how they made her think of her own sibling. She and her sister acted the same way... to a point. The water bender just shook her head, smile never fading as her long hair waved with the action.

"Anyways, if Ranma is anything like her friend, she's going to be ready for a good meal soon", she mused to herself as she thought about the green haired girl. The day she awoke, she had eaten in one sitting far more than Hikaru would eat in a day. At the time, the healer was flabbergasted, but now she just shrugged her shoulders at the thought, as she wiped her hands on a towel in the kitchen.

Then, picking up a ladle off the counter and moved over the large pot on the simple stove. Leaning over it, she took a good whiff and closed her eyes at the smell. A content sound escaped her throat as she smelled the contents of the stew working in concert. Smiling, she stirred the contents of the pot, slowly, with the ladle.

It wasn't too long later, she was reminiscing over how her mother taught her this recipe, how it was easy on healing bodies but supplied a lot of needed nutrients, when she heard the door upstairs open finally. 'Guess they're done up there...' Hikaru figured as she reached for three bowls off a nearby shelf. 'Bet they're ready for food, too.'

The healer smiled as she saw her thoughts were correct. As she poured the bowls full, Ranma had walked around the corner and was practically drooling. The woman could barely contain a chuckle at the sight. "My, my. It almost looks like you haven't eaten in days, Ranma-chan!"

While she grinned though it, Ranma flashed a frown at the water bender, though it only lasted as long as it took the girl to smell the fresh stew. Then she was back to almost drooling. "That smells good..." she managed to eke out as she sat at the table with a motion from the healer.

From there, she saw Ryoga help Hikaru bring the food over to the small table. Hikaru brought a bowl and fresh loaf of bread while the green haired teenager brought the other two bowls. "Thanks, Hikaru-sensei!" the redhead said with gratitude in her voice.

With a blur, Ranma had barely said that before she had picked up the spoon off the table, ready to shovel the hot soup into her waiting mouth. Before she had been able to dip the wooden utensil into the vegetable stew before she was stopped by a hand on her arm. "I made plenty, Ranma. There's no need to rush", came the reassuring voice of the healer, who had a doctor's look on her face.

Ranma nodded and through the next two bowls, she took it slow... for her, but Hikaru recognized the effort she was putting forth and accepted it. By the time she was on her third bowl, most of her hunger lust was sedated, replaced by a slower leisurely pace where she could taste the flavors of the food. Ryoga was on her second, while Hikaru just watched the growing girls.

The older female looked over as she heard the sound of a spoon clunk into another empty wooden bowl. Seeing the girl rubbing her stomach, she figured Ranma was done for a while. In her head, she chuckled, 'Good thing too, I don't think we have another bowl full left...'

Her eyes changed to an expectant look once she heard the girl speak up. "Thanks again for the food." There was a slight break as the redhead looked inward on how to say the next thing, "Um... do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure, but I already have someone, so; no, I can't be your wife" she replied teasingly. She almost fell over laughing at the look the younger girl gave back, flushing beet red. Ryoga, across the table from her friend, almost choked on the spoon full of stew she had been swallowing, quickly coughing before laughing herself.

"I'm joking, Ranma-chan. Calm down..." she said, trying to calm the flow of sputtered denials. With a deep breath, the girl did finally slow down, but her face was still a little flushed as she actually let lose her question.

"Sensei, how did you do that with the water? Tai Chi can't do that", showing an odd combination of fading flush and stern attention to the waterbender.

The brown haired woman just raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Tai Chi? I don't understand..."

"Tai Chi... you were using it upstairs when you dried the bed out..." Ranma replied, trying to get Hikaru to figure it out.

Shaking her head, the healer answered with a still confused tone, "I still don't know what 'Tai Chi' is, but that was Waterbending."

Hikaru watched as the frustrated redhead looked over towards her friend, who just gave a 'told you so' shrug back. "Ok, then... How do you do it?"

The waterbender let out a sigh, putting the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb. "I assume Ryoga already told you some things? Maybe like how she tried copying me outside already?"

It was Ryoga's turn to blush and stammer out incomprehensible words before settling down and bashfully saying, "Sorry..."

"No, it's no problem, Ryoga-chan", Hikaru replied, patting the air to placate the girl. "It just gets a little discouraging when every youth that I meet wants to try and copy me, thinking they can just learn waterbending that easily. Though, I'll admit that you were almost perfect in your form when you tried it."

Ryoga's face just continued to flush as she held a bashful grin at the praise, while the woman continued, "I'll tell you right now, it's unheard of to find a waterbender that was born outside of either the North or South Waterbender tribes, unless one or both of the parents was one. Just by looking at you girls, neither of you looks to be from either, so it's almost impossible for either of you to be able to waterbend."

Seeing the downtrodden look on both their faces, Hikaru continued on, with a slightly more upbeat tone, "As long as you understand that, and accept it, I see no problem explaining some of what I understand."

Seeing the nods from the girls, she started to explain in generic terms, "The original waterbenders learned waterbending from the moon's influence on the tides. I guess you could say the moon is our source of power for waterbending."

She received another set of nods at that, the teenagers soaking in the knowledge but wanting more, "As for the act of waterbending, it's hard to really explain... Yes, the moves of your body have something to do with it, but you have to will the water to flow with you. Not everyone in the Watertribes has the ability. The same could be said for all the other benders too, except for the Airbenders... All of their people have the ability to bend, but they were wiped out around a century ago."

Both Ranma and Ryoga heard the healer let out a sigh at that point. "Apparently, from what the elders told me, the Avatar was supposed to be from the Airbender tribes. Most people think he or she died with the other Airbenders, but if that's so, the Avatar should have been reborn into the Watertribes..."

She let out another sigh, as her words died out. After a few seconds she looked between the teenagers, noticing them look at each other for a second. "Avatar?", Ryoga asked, confused.

Hikaru giggled a little, though it was a little melancholy, "I don't blame you for not knowing. It's been almost four times my lifetime when the Avatar disappeared. The Avatar is supposed to bring balance to the world. He or she is the only one that's able to bend all four elements through a single body. As for who he or she is, no one knows, other than the reincarnation line has been broken, so most people guess the Airbender Avatar is still alive."

Finishing that, the waterbender laughed lightly, "Well, for all I know, one of you two could be the avatar and I'd never know it." Seeing the looks on their faces, she sighed again, "I'm joking, girls... sheesh."

The pair just giggled some at Hikaru's reaction. "We know. Just giving you a hard time, Hikaru-sensei", Ryoga said with a smile.

--

"Well, that's not very nice... teasing the woman who saved you both, that is", a voice came from the open front door.

All three females looked in that direction, but once Hikaru saw who it was, she stood up while smiling. "Ah, Lieutenant Gau! Welcome."

"Thank you, Hikaru-chan. I hope I'm not interrupting...", the gate officer replied, a smile shining above a trim black goatee.

"Oh, not at all. We were just finishing our meal and chatting a bit", she voiced, indicating the dishes with a hand. "Would you like some? I have a little left."

The uniformed man just raised up a hand, with a smile, "Thank you, but I'm here cause I heard there were two pretty girls that are finally awake."

A moment later, Gau was wondering what he had said wrong as one of the girls dropped her forehead into one of her palms and the other just glared at him. "Um... what'd I say?"

Hikaru shrugged as Ryoga let out a sigh. Looking at the man, the green haired girl answered, "We're fighters and martial artists, not 'pretty girls'."

"Doesn't help that the last guy in a green uniform like that was an ass...", Ranma added with a little bite, crossing her arms.

"Uh... ok. Sorry about that, you two", the lieutenant apologized, still more than a little confused. He quickly shook it off though, as he continued, "I still need to talk with you both... hopefully without the dagger eyes?"

Ranma looked from Hikaru to Ryoga before throwing her hands in the air, saying "Fine..." She chose to rest her elbow on the table, with her chin in the palm of her hand, giving the officer a disinterested look for now.

Letting out a cough, Gau started with a simple question, "For starters, How'd you two get hurt so badly?"

"We were in a fight... next question..." Ranma replied quick and deadpanned.

Hikaru was taken aback by her patient's attitude, "Ranma! There's no need to be rude! Gau-san hasn't done anything to deserve that!"

The redhead winced, and dropped her arm from the table, lowering her head as she apologized, "Sorry..."

"It's ok, Hikaru-chan. And Ranma, I'm just trying to find out what happened. You aren't in any trouble. In fact, you both might be minor heroines depending on what happened", Gau said, trying to grab the girl's attention.

"What are you talking about?" Ryoga cut in, slightly confused.

"Well, I need to know what happened before I can say anything else. Sorry. Now, who were you fighting that got you two almost killed?"

The male saw the two teenagers look at each other, almost like they were having a nonverbal conversation. After a few seconds, the green haired one shrugged and Ranma replied, in a less hostile tone, "We were attacked by six bandits. Four men and two women..."

At that point, Ranma's eidetic memory for fights stunned both Hikaru and Gau, as she detailed her side of the fight to the moves used. Ryoga showed that she was no slouch either, describing her side in detail, too.

Gau just sat back in his chair, stroking his goatee as he sorted through the info the pair of martial artists had given him. He was like that for a couple of minutes, while Hikaru looked at the two in disbelief. "Are you serious?", she asked the two.

"Yeah... that's what happened", Ryoga replied, Ranma nodding in agreement.

"It also matches the report we received the day after", Gau mentioned. Seeing the three sets of eyes turn towards him, he explained, "We had a merchant caravan show up the next morning. They had found four bodies, well three on the road and one that was drug off the side and half eaten. I sent some men to inspect it, and they found marks where two others would have been, but they survived it seems."

He paused a moment as he saw both girls look at each other again before looking down. Both looked a little uneasy about something. It didn't take him long to realize what was the cause, saying "Don't think about it. They would have killed you, or worse..."

Not seeing a change in the faces of the two, he coughed and thought for a second, looking over to Hikaru. She just looked to the side, silent. Slightly defeated, Gau let out a sigh, "Uh... Hey, that Ma... Moto... er..." He seemed at a loss, trying to pronounce the odd name for an attack the redhead had said.

"Moko Takabisha..."

"Yeah, that... What exactly is it?" he asked. He grinned internally as he saw both girls look up at him, 'Ok, something to keep their minds off their first kills...'

"Well, easiest way to explain it is I channel my Ki or Chi, depending on how you say it, into a ball and then shoot it at the target. It's a lot easier to show than explain, really", the martial artist explained. Near the end, she raised her right hand and focused. It took her a few seconds, but in the middle of her open palm a small ball of light formed, around three centimeters in diameter, but it glowed a bright golden hue.

Gau and Hikaru looked in awe at the spectacle, never seeing anything like it in their lives. They gawked at it up until Ranma absorbed it back into herself, breathing deeply. Sweat was forming on her brow from the effort. "Damn... I'm tired...", she complained.

"And I'm assuming that's not the full attack, right?", Gau asked tentatively.

"Yeah, that was real weak, cause we're still injured", Ryoga replied, letting the redhead catch her breath.

"Wow...", was all the lieutenant could respond with as he sat back in his chair again. Hikaru just mutely nodded in agreement.

A minute of silence happened, as the adults processed the information, but it was broken by an impatient teenager who had caught her breath. "So... now what?"

Shaking his head, Gau apologized, "Oh, sorry. Well, since the story matches the report, I'm happy to inform you of the bounty you two have earned. See, those bandits have been attacking our traders and random travelers for months now and with them gone, life will be a little easier."

With that, he pulled a small sack out of an inner pocket and placed it on the table, an audible clinking sound coming from it. "Here you go, girls. Thank you from the city of Gyon and I hope you make a full recovery. With that, I'll get out of your hair. Ranma... Ryoga... Hikaru-san...", he finished, bowing to each one, receiving a nod or bow in return.

With that, he walked out of the house, leaving two teenagers looking at the bag on the table and a more than slightly confused and cautious waterbender. The two girls seemed to have another unspoken talk as Hikaru watched them, before Ryoga picked up the bag and held it out to her.

"You saved our lives, you deserve this more than us", the green haired girl said with gratitude in her voice.

Hikaru quickly waved it away, "Oh, no! That's your money! I, uh, already... That is, that's what's left after they already paid me for my services..." The older woman blushed a bit in embarrassment, but smiled at the girls. "Like I said, I want you to rest here until you're fully healed and I won't take no for an answer."

Ranma watched her friend retract the bag and put it in the pouch on the inside of her shirt. Around that time, she let out a yawn, feeling the huge drain the ki technique had put on her body. "I'm tired... I'm gonna head back upstairs for a nap...", her voice gave her energy level away.

The two other females watched the redhead go around the corner and heard her go up the stairs. After a second, Ryoga turned towards the waterbender and locked her gaze into the older female's eyes. "What can you tell me about your healing techniques?"

--

End of Chapter 5


	5. Path to Knowledge

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

The night's rain left the morning cool and crisp, a cool breeze bringing the clean smell into the room as the window was thrown open. The female at the window turned at the sound of complaint moaning out from under the covers behind her. The lump of cloth was balled up and mumbling something about crazy fiancées and stupid pandas who wanted to die.

"Hey, Ranma, get up", came the command, as the female walked from the window to bed. The only response was a disgruntled martial artist saying something almost inaudible except for a few choice words. Instead of getting angry, though, they only brought a malicious grin to the females face as she took a deep breath in.

"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"

Within the second, the bed was empty and a loose haired girl was in a defensive stance on the other side of the room, her black pants and white undershirt loose and moving in the slight breeze. Her look of concentration faded into ire, though, as she heard snickering from her 'opponent' across the room. In a swift move, she picked up a nearby pillow and threw it, yelling, "Damn it, Ryoga! What the hell?"

Just as the green haired girl caught the pillow easily, a smile that said 'I win' on her face, another voice broke into the room. "Ah, Ryoga… thank you for waking her, but did you have to try and wake the whole neighborhood?"

The redhead glanced over to see the brown haired healer, this time in a loose braid, at the door. A smile graced her face, but it was one of slight disbelief that went well with the shaking of her head. "Anyways, since you're both up now, get dressed and come down for breakfast.", she said before turning around and headed back downstairs. An amused giggle could be heard as she went.

Ranma looked from the door to the still smiling fighter. Crossing her arms, she frowned before saying, "You're an ass…"

Her grinning target just shrugged and headed out the door. Before exiting the room though, she looked over her shoulder and let out a snarky comment, "Hurry or I'll get your share…"

Ranma grumbled as she moved back over to the bed she had woken up from, the same one Hikaru had splashed her down in yesterday. Reaching up to the wall hook, she took down her blue top and tied it on while headed towards the door. By the time the teenager was down the stairs, she was finish and smelling the food that Hikaru was also finishing.

"Morning, Ranma-chan. How are you feeling?", came the greeting and question, even though the waterbender hadn't turned her back to the stove. She wore the same blue robes she wore the day before, the martial artist noticed after turning the corner and directing her attention towards the question.

Then, Ranma took stock of her own body, quickly inspecting her chi over. "I think I'm mostly healed", she started out before frowning slightly. 'but my chi is only at around half strength…', she silently finished to herself. She noticed Ryoga nod out of the corner of her eye, but brushed it off as she sat down opposite of her rival.

"That's good to hear, though I want to check just to make sure after we finish eating", she replied as she brought over what looked to be three bowls of oatmeal like substance. Ranma noticed there were bits of fruit mixed in as Hikaru continued, "Oh, have you thought about what you two are going to do today? I have a few house calls to make, so I wont be here for most of the day." Explaining that, her mouth twisted into a wry grin as she finished, "That means no getting yourself nearly killed, ok?"

Her response was two mumbles of understanding as the pair of martial artists were already eating. The brunette just shook her head as she started herself, wondering if she and her sister were ever this bad. The next minute or so was quiet, safe for the sounds of hunger being abated.

"Hey, Saotome", came as the silence was broke, "I thought about it after you crashed yesterday. We're gonna need some gear if we plan on traveling again. I feel sorta naked without my backpack."

Swallowing, the redhead replied, "Yeah, I felt that too. Me and Pop always had our gear when we headed out on training trips. Probably want to get some spare cloths too."

Putting her spoon back on the table, Hikaru nodded her head as she smiled, "Sounds like you girls are headed to the market then. Wish I could join you, but like I said, I have house calls to make."

Seeing Ranma was finished with the bowl in front of her, and not expecting her to want second, Hikaru stood up and moved around the table. "Ranma, let's get this exam done so I can head out on those house calls. Ryoga, could you clean up for me, please?"

--

One waterbender health check later, Ranma was tying her top back on while Hikaru yelled that she was leaving from the front door. The exam proved what Ranma thought already, so it was no big surprise to the martial artist. She just shrugged it off, since Tofu was the same way.

The kitchen was cleaned when the redhead finally made her way down into it for the second time that day. She noticed the stove still going, a pot on it, while Ryoga was sitting back down at the table, chin in hand. Pulling up the chair across from the girl, Ranma asked, "What's up?"

"Nothing, just figuring out what we'll need for a light load of gear. I figure well want a small tent, spare set of cloths and some canteens. We'll also want a pot or something to cook in, since I haven't seen instant ramen or anything like it yet", she marked off in her head with a nod on each item.

"You've been to the market already, right?" Ranma's question was answered with just a nod, "You think we'll be able to find that stuff?"

Ryoga nodded again, "Yeah, I think I've seen them already, so it shouldn't be a problem finding them again." Ryoga paused at Ranma's smirk, "Hey, I'm not that bad now…"

"Okay, okay. So what are we waiting for?", Ranma replied while standing up from the table.

"Just this", came Ryoga's cryptic reply as the tan clad martial artist moved around the table towards the stove. She dipped a ladle into the pot and quickly upturned it over her, making her a him. "Figure you'd be itching to turn back, but if you're that in touch with your feminine side…" Ranma let out an annoyed, "Hey!", as Ryoga lifted the pot by the handle and motioned to pour it down the drain basin.

--

A while later, the sound of content was heard from a black haired male as he stretched out his back. His fanged companion grinned, walking at his side, as he felt the same way. "Damn, it feels good to be a guy again", Ranma exclaimed, thankful for the chance to get away from Hikaru to change without causing her to freak or have to explain it.

"Yeah, but I'll take this curse any day. I don't really have too much problem with it", Ryoga replied with a shrug as they both walked down the road towards the market.

"Yeah, you never had three fiancées, either", Ranma snapped back, with a snort. "Then there's those idiot Kuno's who want to kill and woo me… both sides, both idiots…", he continued, shaking his head and growling. "Want me to go on? I got enough shit to keep talking till the sun goes down!"

"Alright, Alright! Quit your whining, Saotome", the bandana wearing male replied. "Sorry I brought it up."

"Yeah, whatever… Let's just get the gear we need", the blue eyed fighter said, finishing off the conversation.

--

The next half hour of walking was silent between the two, as the pair made their way deeper into the city. They passed many people, each going about their own business and not minding the pair any attention. Passing buildings and side streets as they went, Ranma and Ryoga marked off the similarities and differences, lopsided for the latter, between Gyon and Nerima.

Ranma, for the most part, found the lack of crazy people attacking him out of nowhere kind of relaxing, for a change. But it also unnerved him, as he looked around wondering if they were just laying in wait for him to really drop his guard. In Nerima, he would look relaxed most of the time, but that's because he unconsciously resigned himself to the fact that it was normal.

Ryoga on the other hand, kept flicking his gaze to his side every once in a while, making sure he hadn't lost Ranma… or himself. It had been three days since Hikaru started asking him to buy things from the market or deliver things, but he still wasn't over the fact that he could find his way without someone guiding him. What really unnerved him that he was that he was guiding Ranma at this point.

They both just shook their heads at their own internal musings. Finally, though, the ice was broken again by speech between the two.

"After you crashed yesterday", Ryoga started, getting Ranma's attention, "I asked Hikaru-sensei about her healing. Seems she does it with waterbending…"

Ranma turned his head slightly towards him and edged him on, "Yeah, and? I saw that this morning."

"Well, when I asked her about it, she gave the same talk about us not being able to do it, due to waterbending and all that." Ranma just nodded for him to continue, "Ok, even though we can't waterbend I got her to explain it somewhat."

"Don't tell me you got it figured out…", Ranma responded, raising an eyebrow at his companion.

"No, I didn't, but it seems that she's using the waterbending as a… tool, to manipulate the chi in the body to heal. I wondered about it when I watched her work on you once while you were unconscious."

Ranma snorted and grinned as he quickly slid in, "Oh, so you got a free show, huh? Get a bloody nose too?"

"Shut up, Saotome", the target of the jab replied dryly, as his eyebrow twitched. "I was interested in the healing, not you, jerk."

"Okay, okay. So, I'm guessing you saw her manipulating my chi, sort of how we do it to enhance our speed and such."

Ryoga nodded, "Yeah, that's about it. Hikaru-sensei explained that much too, but she pointed out a few of the areas that she said had the most effect. I think, after some practice, we might be able to work out some sort of… 'first aid' to use if we run into a situation like those bandits, again."

Ranma looked up in thought, more than a few quiet seconds passed. Then the edge of his mouth twitched downward, "The problem is that, since we're already near full strength, we wouldn't know if it works or not until we're beat up." Then, he let out a snide laugh, "Sounds great! Let's get almost killed and hope it works…"

"Yeah, I thought that too", Ryoga admitted with a shrug. "On the other hand, you could always just let me beat the shit out of you and then try it out while we're still here…", he offered with a grin.

"Sure, Ryoga, sure, and then you'll be asking me to try Akane's cooking to see if you can heal that too."

"Hey! Don't insult Akane-san like that!" Ryoga reiterated his demand with a jabbing finger into Ranma's shoulder.

"Ryoga…", Ranma started, his ire growing from the stress they both felt from the situation. In a split second decision though, he knocked Ryoga's offending finger away and just said, "Whatever… I'll drop it."

The tan clad youth knew that was as close to an apology he was going to get from Ranma at this point, so just let it go. It was a good decision, since they were passing a guard station, filled with green uniformed personnel. The pair were now entering the market district of Gyon.

--

"So why the change? You used to wear that red shirt all the time back in Nerima. Hell, I don't think you wore anything else unless you had to", Ryoga asked as they walked out of the tailor's.

"More of a tactical thing, I guess. Remember when we entered Quonju. That guard singled me out before you. I think it was the red shirt for some reason. Same with the looks from the other people", the blue clad Ranma replied. He then shrugged, "It was my favorite shirt, but with it gone… New area, new look."

Then, he adopted a mocking voice, mimicking his female side, throwing a wide mocking smile, "Besides, it matches my eyes!"

The brown eyed male just stared at the startling change in character. For a second, he did nothing but stand there, but then his lips twitched as a snort was let out, which grew to chuckling and then full blown laughter. Ranma just joined on in.

After the much needed laugh, Ryoga punched his friend's arm, though there wasn't any force in it. He didn't say anything with it, but they both knew what was said as they hefted their packs on their backs and walked farther into the market. They had gathered what they needed for traveling, but their curiosity, along with having nothing better to do at the moment, kept them wandering farther in.

After an hour of observing odd shops and people watching, they figured out the basic rules of where they were. The animals, which seemed to be interesting combinations to the pair of martial artists, were completely normal, as they passed butchers and sellers of live goods. From chicken/pigs to the large lizard mounts, they had to get over it and accept the oddities as normal… it wasn't easy and they didn't completely succeed.

Then, they noticed that, even though the pair never really used technology on a daily basis, it was obvious they sold nothing higher than standard martial weapons and absolutely nothing around had anything to do with electricity. When Ryoga thought about it, Hikaru's house was light by candle or lamp in the evening. Ranma just shrugged it off somewhat, remembering his training trips to places like this, though a city this big without technology was odd, even in his eye.

Finally, as Ranma found out next, there were, as always, thieves in every city.

Ranma was looking over at a food vender, on the other side of Ryoga, when someone slammed into him from the other side from where he was looking. Ryoga heard the impact and saw Ranma jar to the side with the impact, along with a quick, "Watch it!"

A few steps down the street, Ryoga cast a sideways glance at his rival, when he heard him grumbling under his breath. "What's up, Saotome?"

"Freaking punk, trying to steal from me! He can't even do it right, either", the martial artist hissed above a whisper.

"Your kidding… Why didn't you do anything?" Ryoga asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Who says I didn't?" Ranma asked back, showing a small back in his hand before sliding it up his sleeve to have it disappear. "Now you see it, now you don't", he continued, with a wave of his hands. "Might not be as good as Mousse, but it's useful for small things."

"You mean you stole his 'Dark Magic' technique?", the fanged male wondered, looking from the blue sleeve to the empty hand. "How he hides all those chains and crap everywhere on his body?"

"Yup", the grinning Saotome answered, "It's kinda really weak compared to his, so I can only use it to hide my money from Pop, Nabiki and thieves. Still, that's good enough." Seeing Ryoga's look of interest, he offered, "Ok, how's about a trade: 'Dark Magic' for the healing info from Hikaru."

Ryoga grinned and clasped hands with Ranma, exclaiming, "Deal!"

"Ok, now how about we get some grub? My treat!"

With that, the pair found a place that looked decent enough, walked in and sat down. A quick order later, where they just asked for whatever was recommended, and Ranma was instructing Ryoga on how to create a small pocketspace using his ki. Ryoga got the idea of it quickly, due to his own experiences with ki manipulation, and soon a toothpick was hidden there.

Ranma wanted him to start small, and Ryoga agreed once he felt the slight drain of having something hidden. He figured Mousse had probably perfected the art of creating and using the 'Dark Magic' pocketspace. It gave Ryoga a new level of respect for the blind Amazonian male.

With a look of surprise, Ranma watched his rival pull a small pouch out of his shirt and toss it over to Ranma's side of the table. "Hold onto that for me, since you're better at that skill for now." Ranma just nodded after he took a look at the small pouch, and then slipped it into his own shirt, making it disappear.

It wasn't long afterwards that the waitress brought out two dishes of what looked like chicken with stir-fry vegetables. It was pretty good, but definitely not on the level of Ucchan or the Amazon's cooking. Still, it filled the guts of the pair.

As they were eating though, they listened to the talking going on around them, not bothering with talking themselves due to the stuffing of their own faces. Most of it was useless info, personal business and the like. One piece caught their attention though.

"Seems the Fire Nation is pushing in…", a worried man in a grey shirt loudly whispered.

"Yeah…", a balding man agreed, "but something isn't right…"

"What do you mean, Hoago?" a third man asked in green robes.

"We all know the Fire Nation is crazy, all with this hundred year war and all", Hoago stated, "but I heard that they attacked Kyoshi Island."

"Kyoshi? But they've never bothered anyone… Why'd they do that?", the grey shirted man wondered.

"I don't know, Baan, but it seems odd…", Hoago replied, drifting off into silence.

A few seconds later, the green robed man of the trio piped up, "Speaking of odd, don't you think the prices of cabbages are odd?"

Hearing the two other men groan, Ranma and Ryoga tuned them out. With a look at one another, they got up from the table, with Ranma dropping a few coins to pay. Then, they hefted their bags and headed out, more actively searching for their next destination.

--

"Alright, here you two gentlemen are", an older learned male voice said, gaining the attention of the two martial artists. "One map of the world, only slightly detailed I'm sorry to say", he lamented, placing the scroll down on the rented table. The pair didn't even reach for it, seeing the other books on the small cart the elder man brought with him.

"It might not be exactly what you expected, but we have the very opinionated views of Peagon Hren in 'The Complete World'. I would take what he writes with a grain of salt, but the basic knowledge he writes about the four nations are accurate", he explained as he also placed the tomb on the table.

"Unfortunately, our library is fairly limited on the subject of the Avatar, as most information pertaining to that subject is privy to only rare individuals. Still, we have a lore book that might provide some insight to some of the questions you have. Just remember that lore is not pure truth, but there is almost always a glimmer of such in there", he warned, placing 'Avatar and Mythic Icons' on the table.

"Now, considering the specific nature of the last request, and the active nature of the subject, I found the most appropriate book for you on the subject of the Fire Nation War. It lacks a name, as the author chose to not to give it one, but it covers the war up until five years ago", he finished, placing a third book on the table.

"Is there anything else I can help you two gentlemen with?"

"Thank you, Lee-san, but I think we'll have our hands full with these for a while", Ranma said to the older man, with a slight bow of his head. The elder man bent into his own bow with a smile before walking away from the table towards another farther down, the occupant of that one done and needing it cleaned off.

"Alright, then… Let's take a look at this map", Ryoga chose, reaching forward to the scroll that lay between the pair, each on opposite sides of the table.

With care, he felt the old paper's texture under his fingers as he gripped it tenderly. Then, he just as carefully untied the leather band that held it rolled up. Then, setting it on the table, he unrolled it in the center of the table. Silence reigned as they stopped breathing, looking at the map with eyes so wide they looked like they would never go back to normal.

Finally, Ranma figured out he was standing, only because he felt himself collapse in the chair behind him. "No way…", was all he could whisper out.

Across from him, Ryoga was jerking his eyes all over the map, trying to find anything, any simple name that stood out to him. The sweat gathered on his forehead as his hands started to shake. He continued for minutes, never giving up in his search, even though he passed his eyes over the same names three or four times, hoping to see something different or something he missed.

Finally, Ranma ran a clammy hand across his face as the adaptable mentality, required for his family's style, finally processed the information it had been gathering over the past conscious week. It took a giant leap of faith, but his psyche shot back that his entire life was a giant series of leaps of faith. So it boiled down to one simple question he had to ask himself, 'Do you accept it, or do you break?'

"Ryoga… stop…", came the dead voice. Ryoga never even heard it as he continued to run through the map in a panic, face whiter than the purest snow ever fallen. The grunts of his mental efforts kept pounding into Ranma's brain as if Akane had been let loose on the inside with her mallet. "Ryoga, stop…"

There was no change.

"God damn it! GIVE IT UP!"

The sound of the yell resounded off the closed walls of the library, bouncing off the stone bookcases and scroll mounts. This was quickly followed by the sound of fist smashing into flesh and the echo of body smashing into a chair before both falling to the floor. It was quickly followed by the sound of another body falling into a chair, though the next was one of the loudest, most emotionally charged, sigh that Lee had ever heard as he made his way back to the table.

"Is there a problem?"

Ranma didn't even look up at the stiff halting voice of the librarian sage, whose tone made it perfectly clear that there, in fact, was a problem. His fingers never left his face as the martial artist responded in a low tired voice, "No, Lee-san. We're fine. There won't be a problem, either."

"Is your friend alright, sir?" The look on his face showed he knew exactly what had happened, but was showing professionalism, just short of legendary, to keep his client's dignity.

Finally, the sound of the stunned Ryoga struggling to get his body working under his own mental commands, along with struggling to regain his mental faculties, filled the air. Almost painfully slow, the legs of the chair he once sat upon dragged themselves back into a standing position and groan under the weight of Ryoga sitting upon it once again. "Yeah… I'm fine…"

"That is good to hear, sir, but I might ask you to seek a healer if you fall again", Lee stated, making it perfectly clear to the two that there wouldn't be another incident or they would be asked to leave.

"Thank you, Lee-san. I'm fine now", Ryoga stated, showing higher brain functions were firing again. He didn't even put a hand up to the glowing red fist mark on his face, which Lee ignored professionally.

"I am happy to hear that. Please call me if you need any further assistance", the old librarian stated, still in a warning tone, as he made his way towards the last task he was working on before the interruption. He didn't miss the glare the fallen patron gave to the one in the blue top as he made his exit, but again, ignored it.

The two teenagers were silent for the longest while, until Ranma finally lowered a tired hand from his grim face and simply stated, "We aren't on Earth anymore."

Ryoga, forced to hear the statement, one which held completely no doubt in Ranma's voice, just hung his head in defeat. Still, for the sake of trying, he weakly stated, "That's impossible…"

There was no belief in his voice. It was hollow and only stated to check a box on his mental list. Still, for the sake of his friend's mental state, Ranma stated two words to set him right, "Wake up..."

--

Hours had past after Ryoga had been snapped into the current reality by Ranma's simple statement. Spurred by that revelation both teens dove into the books lent to them, which surprised Librarian Lee. He had kept an eye on the two, but after a while, he saw a pair of teenagers thirsting for knowledge he had only seen in the rarest of scholars.

After pouring through the tombs, they had sat digesting the information they had gleamed in their short time. They had only skimmed, reading passages that spoke to them, but it seemed they found the ones that mattered as they finally started throwing the data off of each other.

It all boiled down to easy concepts for the two males, which they listed off mentally to each other. One, they were not on Earth. Two, there was a global war going on, using martial arts and elements as the primary weapons. Three, there is a single person who has superhuman power to control all the elements and supposedly spirits; the Avatar. Four, the last Avatar was to be an Airbender almost a century ago, but disappeared. There has been no Waterbender Avatar, so the Airbender is still alive.

"We have to find the Avatar…"

It was a simple statement, but both Ryoga and Ranma knew the futility of what it said just as much. In reality, it meant searching the entire world, whatever one they were on, for a single person who hadn't been seen in over three times their combined lifetimes. All in all, it was a great blow to their state of mind, but neither one knew the meaning of 'give up'. They both considered it just a matter of time before they succeeded.

Even more so, neither even gave a thought to the fact that the Avatar might not be able to send them back. The Avatar had that power and would help them. Any other answer was unacceptable to the martial artists. With that in mind, they left the hall of books and scrolls, determination on their faces.

--

It was this determination that Hikaru saw on the girl's faces as they sat at her table for dinner. Even though her two patients were emotionally charged, they were silent since they entered. Slightly confused and also slightly disturbed, she asked, "Girls? Did anything happen today?"

The pair shared one of their looks, which was becoming normal to the healer now, before at some barely visible signal, one of them spoke up. This time, it was Ryoga. "We went to the market and bought some traveling gear for when we head out."

"That sounds… nice", the waterbender replied, knowing there was more. "Was there anything else?"

There was another look between the two, but this time Ranma spoke up. The tone she spoke out with though, was nervous as she asked, "Promise you wont freak out?"

Hearing that, it set alarms off all throughout Hikaru's mind, even though there were already some going off from the start. Now it was worse. Looking over the two girls with slightly narrowed eyes, she withheld her answer as she considered the pleading looks on their faces. She just let out a sigh before saying, "I… I don't know, but it must be important…"

"Well…", the redhead started, unsure of how to say what's on her mind. Finally, she just let out a sigh and chose brute force of words, "Me and Ryoga decided to find the Avatar."

For a second, Hikaru looked at each of the girls, then she broke into a laugh at the absurdity of the statement. In her mind, it was a joke, that's all it could have been. The Avatar had been missing for almost a century and that's not for lack of searching for him. People had searched for him and never were seen again.

It was a joke… but as she looked at her young friend's faces, she noticed they weren't laughing. There wasn't even a sign of humor in their dead serious faces. Hikaru's laugher died out until the room was silent as a graveyard. "You… you two are serious… aren't you?", she nervously asked.

They didn't say any words, they just solemnly nodded in almost unison. The brunette just sat back in her chair letting out a very weak, "Oh my…"

Silence reigned once again, until Hikaru asked, "Can I ask why?"

"We think… know that he can help us. We need his help", was Ryoga's response, deadly serious in her tone.

Looking at the two girls, the woman could only ask, "Why do you need the Avatar's help?"

"We…", Ryoga started out, before coming up at a loss. Her companion picked it up quickly though, "We can't tell you that… yet." Seeing the pang of hurt on the older woman's face, the redhead sighed and added, "Tomorrow… We'll tell you tomorrow, at dinner."

The silent nod was all the two girls needed as they gave their own version of a weak smile. Hikaru then watched as they excused themselves and went up to bed. The woman sat there alone for a long time, trying to guess why they would need the Avatar. Even as she, herself, climbed into her own bed, she couldn't figure out a reason why that would keep the both of them from telling her.

She only hoped they trusted her enough, but in the back of her mind, Hikaru didn't know if she really wanted to find out…

--

Her blue eyes snapped open that morning to the sounds of fighting. It wasn't a loud vocal fight, though, but an eerie fight of just grunts and impacts. Hearing this, she quickly donned her blue attire and rushed outside, intent on identifying and stopping it.

When she finally swung open the front door, she danced back, quickly retreating the couple of steps she had taken outside. Had she not, a tan figure would have knocked them both over in her backward slide. Hikaru saw the green haired girl quickly lower her defensively held arms and pull them towards another fighting stance just as a blue and red blur few after her.

The waterbender stood there in the doorway, unconsciously choosing the safe spot till her mind finally started flowing. During that time though, Ryoga had intercepted the kick-punch combination that the other female had thrown at her. Intent on grabbing the initiative, she shifted her weight and threw the lighter female.

Before Ranma had even registered she was being thrown, she started righting herself. She slid a bit on the dusty brick street, but quickly found her center as the sounds of running came from behind her. Spinning her head around, the redhead quickly spun the rest if her body, throwing her right leg up into a crescent kick that knocked the offered punch wide and following through with a spear hand that missed Ryoga's head by inches thanks to her own last moment dodge and block.

Finally, Hikaru caught her senses and her cry broke out, "What, in the name of the moon spirit, are you two doing?!"

Quickly, the two separated with a hop back from each other. Ranma, who was facing the healer, answered first, stating as if it was obvious, "We're just sparring."

As Ryoga finished turning, she heard the brown haired woman exclaim, "You two looked like you were trying to kill each other! You call that sparring?!"

"Actually, we were just playing around", Ryoga said with a shrug. "We agreed on only defensive chi and no ki attacks, plus no secret techniques. Plus, we were going slow enough to make sure we didn't seriously injure ourselves."

"Yeah, but it still hurts… thanks pulling that punch", the redhead added wryly as she rubbed her left shoulder.

"Anytime!", Ryoga replied with a grin, while holding her arm to her side.

"By the spirits, I just healed you both and then you beat yourselves up", Hikaru said to them both with a shake of her head, putting a hand up to the side of it. "Are you two crazy?"

Ranma just grinned at that and shook her head, "If you only knew…" Hearing that cryptic open-ended response, Hikaru didn't know how to reply.

Finally, giving her head another quick shake, she said, "Whatever… I need to check you over one last time, Ranma."

"Actually, that's part of the reason we were sparring, Hikaru-sensei", the redhead replied, while walking towards the healer. Ryoga followed behind while Ranma continued, "I'm almost at full power while she is." She indicated Ryoga with a jerk of her head.

"That might be, but I prefer my own method of examining my patients, thank you. Now upstairs… both of you", the waterbender commanded, in a motherly tone. The two teenagers just shrugged and followed along.

The exam showed just what the fighters had stated. Other than the new superficial injuries, they were completely healed.

--

After a quick breakfast and a cool bath, the two girls set out towards the market again. This time, they were searching for anything that they might have missed the prior day. Other than finding a good quality bo-staff, which Ranma spent almost nothing on, the pair found nothing that spoke out to them.

The day passed quickly though, and soon their stomachs were requiring release from the emptiness they both felt. Ignoring the chuckles from the store owner, who's wares they were eyeing, they made their way to the nearest smell of food.

"What can I get you, young ladies?"

Ranma smiled at the generic greeting by the waiter, "Well, what do you recommend today?"

"We just got a batch of good quality steak from the market this morning, so I'd recommend that. It's pretty much our cook's specialty", the short haired male replied to the redhead.

"I'll take an order of that", she replied, grinning at the thought of a good heavy meal to fill her stomach.

"Make that two, please", came an add in from the green haired girl on the other side of the table.

"Alright. It'll be out as soon as possible."

Ryoga waited for the waiter to head into the back, where he was probably help cooking as well, before she spoke up to her rival. "So… Why'd you smile at him", jerking her head towards the back, "but you almost bit Gau's head off?

A raised eyebrow and a lowered grin came before the words, "First, I'm not one to piss off the person handling my food. Learned that the hard way back home… even though shit still happened anyways. And second, I didn't trust Gau… still don't know about him for some reason."

Then, a sly grin crossed her face as Ranma continued, "Then, there's always the chance of getting free food. Might not like the curse all the time, but I'd be an idiot not to try and bend it to my advantage when I can."

Hearing that, Ryoga only chuckled a little, nervously, wisely thinking and not saying, 'Damn… wonder if that's your Pop or Nabiki's influence… or both…'

"…Omashu", a voice said as more patrons walked into the restaurant. "That's what my buddy, Kuon, said."

A light snort followed as a female came through then, "Kuon? Your brother's full of himself! Why would the Avatar, after almost a century, show up in Omashu?"

Both martial artists almost reacted like someone had just talked about a cure for Jusenkyo. They stared hard at each other quickly, before trying to hide themselves behind normal actions, as the teenagers listened in. When the male replied back, they made sure they weren't hearing things, "Well, he says he heard it from someone who's brother has a friend in the royal guard. The Avatar was there to see the king for some reason."

"Yeah, right… and my mother was a Unagi…", the woman continued, rolling her green eyes.

This brought a laugh to the man, who replied, "Remember, dear, I met your mother. I'd be inclined to agree." He shrunk down though as she gave him a glare, "Okay, okay. Sorry, dear. Anyways, I trust what Kyon said, if just for hope, cause apparently the Avatar _is_ an Aairbender."

"I still think Kuon's been drinking too much…", the man's wife complained, crossing her arms.

The man just scratched his bald head, "Yeah… That he does, but…" He just left it off at that, seeing the look on his wife's face. From there, the teenagers lost interest in the couple, as they eventually started on trivial matters.

"Guess we know where we're headed next, huh", the girl in tan started in a low voice.

The redhead nodded in return, "Yeah, now we just have to plan on how to get there…"

Other than that, they both sat silently contemplating what they might need for a journey that neither knew how long would take. Neither did either know what routes were available to the pair. Eventually, they gave up and just ate the food when it came out, paid and left, intent on learning about their coming trip.

--

"Okay, so we have a map and we know the only way there is by land", Ryoga pointed on the map, while running the finger across the known road from Gyon to Omashu. "By foot, from what we were told, it should take two and a half to three weeks, if we follow the road. We could rent some… rides or join a caravan but even that will only lower it to just under twelve days."

Finally able to take advantage of her knowledge of wilderness travel, she then ran a finger through an area between the cities, almost a straight shot. "If this map's correct, we can make a shortcut through here on foot and get there in one week. What do you think?"

Ranma was studying the map as Ryoga was talking, knowing she was correct in her statements. "Yeah, I'd take this route", indicating the last one mentioned. "We can follow this river right here for around four days before heading due west. We just need to make sure to get enough canteens for three days."

They both knew that the route they had chosen should have taken an average person two weeks to traverse. Ranma and Ryoga also knew they weren't normal, and they weren't going to be walking the route like a normal human. They planned on jogging the entire way, reducing the travel time by half, barring any unknown events. With that, they got up from the small tea stand and finished buying the gear they needed for their trip.

--

"Ok, girls, I thought about it and I want to know. Why do you need to find the Avatar?"

The two teenagers stopped dead in their tracks as they entered the healer's house. There, sitting at the table was the blue clad brunette, who's voice matched the statement. Ranma's eyes still narrowed, as Ryoga just sighed, at the sight of the goateed male sitting next to her. "Fine, but what about him?"

Hikaru just let out a sigh, and looked at the redhead with pleading eyes, "I… I asked him here. If you can tell me, you can tell him… please?"

Ranma let out a disgruntled groan before letting out a sigh of her own. 'Damn it! Why does she look so much like Kasumi…' Ranma never could tell the eldest Tendo sister no, and the healer before her was giving her a similar look, removing almost all of her feeling of betrayal, "Fine, but I expect him to agree to the same promise!"

"Don't worry; I've seen a lot of things. I doubt whatever you say can cause me to lose my cool", Gau replied, a slight grin on his face, though it still showed seriousness.

Ryoga just snorted and chuckled, "Famous last words…"

"Yeah, tell me about it…", Ranma agreed before asking again, "Again, can you both keep your minds open enough not to go crazy?"

Both adults shared a gaze and, after a few seconds, nodded at the teenagers. "Alright then", the redhead continued as the green haired teenager put some water on the stove to the side, "We told you last night about how we're going to find the Avatar."

Gau raised an eyebrow, "Think you can stop the war by finding him?"

"That's only a means to an end, if we have to", the girl at the stove cut in. "We just want to go home."

That caused both Hikaru and the lieutenant to look at her in question. "If that's it, then we could try and find a way for…"

"It's not that easy!" Ranma had cut Gau off with. "I have another important question for you both… Do you believe in magic?"

The looks she got made her feel like she had grown a second head and six extra arms. "Magic?", Hikaru asked, with disbelief, thinking she misheard it.

"Yeah, Magic. Do you believe in it?"

"Not really, but I have a feeling you're going to show us something and tell us it's magic…", Gau answered with narrowed eyes while stroking his haired chin. He had been shown 'magic' before, but it was all street tricks or just plain lies.

The redhead looked over at Ryoga, who picked up the talk and the adults' gaze, "Well, that'll be in a few minutes. For now, you'll have to take our word for it when we tell you, this isn't our world."

"What?"

"We ain't from this world, whatever it's called. We're from another planet", Ranma picked up quickly and continued while she had the initiative. "And before you ask; yeah, it was magic that brought us here. More exactly, a miscast spell."

She just let out a sigh and shook her head as she heard the snort and laughter come from the officer. "Ok, I admit I've heard a lot of things, being in the army and leading the gate patrols, but this is damn sure a first. You can't expect me to really believe that, can you?"

"Ryoga?"

"It's almost ready", came the knowing response from the stove. The tan clad fighter was watching Hikaru through the talk, since the healer hadn't said much. It was easy to see the doubt in her face, but Ryoga took it as a good sign that she hadn't laughed with Gau. "Let me explain what I'm doing, before Ranma goes any farther."

Pointing to the lightly steaming pot on the stove, she started up, "In the pot is plain water. It's just heating up right now." Moving her hand to a pair of glasses, she pointed at the clear liquid in them, "Cool water, here."

"Why are you setting those up", Hikaru finally asked. Gau, next to her, just shook his head, "They're probably going to use this to 'prove' their form another world somehow…" There was clear sarcasm in his voice.

"Good, so now that we have that explained", Ranma picked up, a knowing grin on her face. "Yeah, hopefully your mind doesn't break after we show you."

"Ok, it's ready", came Ryoga's call, as she used the ladle to pull two bowls of water. Walking it over to the adults, she held them out for them to see. "Clear water, but hot", she stated, getting a nod from both, but also a curious eye as she walked them over to Ranma, who took one.

"Ok, now for the kicker. Back on our world, Ranma and I got cursed by ancient magic. I found a spell to cure myself, but… it miscast", she explained, pausing while trying to control a pang of anger, "changing my curse to one like Ranma's, along with sending us here."

"We figure you don't have the curses here like in our world, cause of what happened to us before we got to Gyon", Ranma continued.

This got Gau's attention, as he had heard something had happened in Quonju recently. Something about demons or spirits disrupting a festival. "Don't tell me that you…"

"Yeah… About that… they overreacted", Ranma said, scratching the back of her neck. "I'm about to show you the reverse of what caused them to go nuts."

Without further talking, Ranma upended the bowl of hot water on herself, grimacing at the temperature. An instant later, an annoyed male voice groaned out, "Hey, think you could have made it hotter?"

"Wh-What…"

Ranma let out a relieved smile as he heard Hikaru's voice stammer out the question. 'Better than I expected… She can still talk.' Turning his gaze from his rival, he ran a hand through his still loose hair, glancing at the woman and the man next to her. He has to hold back a snort of laughter after seeing the look on the guards face.

The sound of water splashing to his right told of Ryoga's transformation. "Well, how do we look? This is the real us, while the girls you've seen are the effect of the curse", Ranma asked with a blatant mark of humor in his voice.

Gau was looking like a beached fish, opening his mouth only to close it as words wouldn't or couldn't form. Hikaru was switching her eyes from teenager to teen, noting the major change in hair color and form. "How can this be?"

"Like we explained, it's proof of magic, Hikaru-sensei", Ryoga said, even toned in his deep voice. "This is our proof that we're from another world and the only way to send us back is the Avatar. That's why we're going to find him, and if we have to, help him get to a point where he can help us."

There was silence in the kitchen after that, with the teenagers waiting on the adults to say something else. Finally, Hikaru excused herself in a low voice and was heard walking up the stairs slowly. Gau seemed to have finally gotten a hold of his mouth, keeping it closed as he stared off into space. 'He's either catatonic or thinking deeply', was Ryoga's guess.

He shocked both the teens when he asked in a serious voice, "So, are you going to fight the Fire Nation?"

After sharing a glance with his rival, Ranma just shrugged and replied, "Only if we have to. It's not our mission to take them down, but I'd be an idiot to think we won't at least fight 'em."

"Do you have any idea where you might find the Avatar?"

"We heard a rumor that he was seen in Omashu to see the King. We're going to start there and hope for some good luck", Ryoga answered and explained.

"And if you find the Avatar?"

"_When_ we find the Avatar, we'll ask for his help. If he cant help us when we find him, we're going to work with him till he can", Ranma restated.

Gau started stroking his goatee at that, just sitting there, thinking. The teens heard the light footsteps of Hikaru turning the corner, and looked in her direction. "I truly hope you…boys, can find the Avatar. You don't know how long the world has needed him", she said with sorrowful eyes.

Then, she held out a hand to each of the young martial artists, saying, "I made these charms in the hope that you wouldn't get hurt the next time you went out of town. Now… I give these to you in the hopes that you succeed, both in finding the Avatar and in your quest to get home."

A second later, each teen held a small wooden charm in their hands. It looked like it was carved by hand, but was skillfully done with care. In the center was a symbol that looked like a circle with waves rolling in it which was colored blue.

"Please, take these and may they help you find the Avatar. If he is still alive, he is the last ray of hope for peace on this world", she said, tears shining in her eyes.

The sound of Gau clapping his hands brought three pairs of eyes to him. "If Hikaru-chan trusts you two, I'll do the same." Saying this, he reached into his jacket, pulling out a pouch and throwing it towards Ranma. When the blue eyed martial artist caught it, he felt and heard the coins held within. "That's payment for any damn Fire Nation scum you take down that get in your way. Plus, you'll need it for supplies on your quest."

"You know that we ain't going out of our way to attack the Fire Nation", Ranma said, looking at the bag of coins, "Why give us this?"

"Cause Fire Nation bastards killed my brother! I figure his spirit will be happy that I helped those who are looking for the Avatar, and might help him out", the lieutenant replied, standing up from the table. "Now, you'll have to excuse me. I'm needed back at the east gate… you both will need to use the south one to get to Omashu." Then, he performed a salute and bowed towards the pair. "Good luck", he finished, and walked out.

"I want to tell you how honored and thankful I am to have you trust me. You didn't have to tell me what you did", the blue eyed healer told the two with a bow.

Ranma just rubbed the back of his neck after putting the bag of coins and charm into his pocketspace. "Really, we should be thanking you for healing our wounds and not freaking out. Most of the time, people pass out on us."

"Well", she started up, folding her hands before her, "after you showed us that glowing ball you can make, I knew you were different. I just didn't know how much, but you're still human." With that, she let out a nervous laugh, "Really, you two grew on me, like sisters… I'm sad to see you go."

"We'll be leaving in the morning, if you don't mind us staying one last night here, Hikaru-sense", Ryoga explained and asked, in the same sentence.

"Oh, of course you can stay! They don't like people entering or leaving the city during the night", the waterbender explained, while waving her hand towards the table. "Now, please, sit down so I can get you some food."

The rest of the evening was filled with idle talk, along with a few stories that Ranma and Ryoga told of their own world. The pair tried to stray away from anything disturbing, but Hikaru's face drew shocked more than once. Still, she also told the two a couple of stories from when she grew up in the Northern Water tribe.

Then, the yawns became prevalent amongst the trio, signaling the need for sleep. With a hug to both the teenagers, all three went off to bed, except this time two males slept where two females were last night.

--

Breakfast was a somber thing this morning, as they silently said goodbye before the actual verbal farewell. Time passed quickly and the morning sun saw a woman hugging two teenagers in a farewell outside her house. They held her hope for the future, the future of the world, but their exit was silent as they finally stepped out the south gate.

Without a word, the Japanese males walked for a while, until at some unsaid point, they felt they were far enough from Gyon, they broke into a brisk run that practically continued until nightfall. This was repeated three more times, without event until the final night on the river before they would head due west into the forests.

They sat, silently watching the fish cook on the campfire. The fish easily gathered via a quick energy blast into the water. Now they just waited, with the crackling of the flames and the babbling of the water nearby. A pot cooled to the side of the fire, the males not needing it any more.

"We know you're out there", Ranma declared as Ryoga continued to poke at the fire with a stick. Neither looked surprised when the male with crew cut hair walked out of the darkness after a few moments. They gave him a precursory look, noting the scar over the left side of his face. Their eyes narrowed though when another person walked out with a grey beard and large belly... he wasn't expected.

--

End of Chapter 6


	6. Red Veil of Rage

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

With a grunt, a blue and black blur shot over the downed tree in a hurdling leap. After more than a few meters of hang time, Ranma's feet touched down and continued speeding along like he hadn't left the ground. A few seconds later the fallen wood behind him exploded in shrapnel. Through the flittering remains, a flash of yellow broke through before clearing into the rest of the tan clad youth wearing the bandana.

"It's been two days...", Ryoga started up after a while, knowing his cohort could hear him even with the wind, "you think he might have been wrong?"

Rolling under a low hanging branch, which his rival just ran through, the agile martial artist let out a grunt, "Nah! If there's one thing I've learned about old geezers, it's that when they warn you of something, they're usually right. Plus, Iroh sounded just like Cologne when she wasn't trying some crazy new plan to make me marry Shampoo."

Spitting a leaf out of his face and brushing twigs off his body, Ryoga asked back, "What are you talking about, Saotome?"

"Shit, Ryoga! You've dealt with the old ghoul before!" he replied back, turning around while keeping up the same pace. Seeing the fanged fighter behind him gesture with his head, he twisted around a tree he was coming across as he continued. "She's a great teacher and... I don't know... someone I can respect, when she's not doing crazy stuff..."

Finishing that, the blue shirted male turned back around to face the way he was moving. To his side, Ryoga had moved forward, catching up and moving even to his rival. "So, what do you think is ahead, then... All we've _seen_ is more forest!"

Ranma just shrugged, "I have no idea, but I'm going to keep a lookout..."

"Fine, but there's something about how he snuck up on us...", Ryoga conceded while voicing his own thoughts. "I still want to know why we didn't notice him while we felt that Zuko guy. It's..."

"I know, I still don't know how... but still seems like I can trust him. That _jerk_ can jump in the river, though", the blue eyed youth snarled out as he ran between two trees. "Punk thinks he can get the fish _I_ caught just cause he demands it? Freaking..."

"Hey, you weren't that much better", came the chiding remark from his side, though when Ranma looked over he saw a grinning Ryoga running there. "You were itching for a fight... and that's before he opened his mouth."

"Ryoga..."

"Yeah", he answered, an eyebrow raised.

"Shut up..."

"Bite me, Ranma! You're just as much a jerk as him", Ryoga shot back, glaring at the target of his ire.

"No, you idiot", came back a hissing insult from the bandana clad teen's left. Then, with eyes widening, Ryoga saw his companion had slid to a stop as the words entered his ears, "You don't hear that?"

"What...", Ryoga started, but quickly silenced as his hearing finally picked up something, causing him to slide to a stop. Turning his head to get a better bead on the direction, he quickly found it. Letting out a small snort, the boy set off towards it, Ranma not far behind.

They moved almost as quickly through the woods as before, but this time the pair made almost no sound as they speed through the underbrush. The noise which set off Ranma from a distance gained in volume as the martial artists moved closer to the source. As they came closer to their unknown target, the tension they both felt was thick in the air. Finally, they slid to a stop, kneeling behind some bushes as they came to the tree line... "Shit..."

"You got that right, Saotome...", came the almost silent reply, mirroring the curse's volume as they both surveyed the scene before them. A moving sea of red flowed like a river ahead, thought both knew it was no bloody river. The dust kicked up from the pounding on the gravel and dirt road might have obscured the flowing red in the far distance, but both martial artists could see well enough to figure out what lay before them.

"A Fire Nation army...", it was both a question and a statement at the same time from the blue eyed fighter. Both the color of the armor the marching soldiers wore along with the odd banner flowing along above them at random seemed to show just that, the red flame flapping as the barer moved with the flow.

"Looks like it...", the brown eyed brawler quietly replied. Squinting into the distance, Ryoga strained to identify something odd that caught his eye. Large... things, seemed to move with the flow of soldiers, but the billowing dust kept them obscured. Finally giving up, he looked in the direction of their travel and shot his eyes wide before mastering them back to a narrow leer. "This isn't good..."

"You _think_?" came the snarky comeback, as Ranma continued to size up the foot soldiers, who carried weapons depending on their group. "The old man was right... but how'd he know", he asked, not expecting an answer from his companion, but asking it anyways.

"I don't think it matters right now", Ryoga stated, nudging the blue clad fighter to gain his attention. "Look at where they're headed! If that's what I think it is, we need to get there first!"

Looking at the direction his rival was indicating with an extended arm, Ranma cursed under his breath, "Shit..." Off in the far distance, peaking over the hills dotted with vegetation stood the tips of civilization. He then flicked his gaze back to the road, noticing how far ahead the lead units of the army were compared to the pair of martial artists. While still in a crouch, Ranma waved his companion forward as he took off, "Hurry up!"

Grumbling under his breath, Ryoga took off after the fleeing form of his rival. Compared to the slow march of the red army to their side; both of the martial artists made good time. Their progress skidded to a halt though just after they passed on the lead units, finding the trees and brush they were using to hide their movements came to an abrupt stop. Taking a quick glance back at the slowly encroaching army, Ryoga let out a quick shout, "Let's go!"

Ranma was only allowed time to utter a startled, "Wha...", before he felt a rough grip on one of his arms. A second later, he was being thrown forward, causing him to let out a startled cry as he tried to regain his balance in mid air. He was only allowed a quick flash of Ryoga sprinting after him before he growled and righted himself, feet moving before he even touched the ground below him.

Ignoring the growing sounds of alarm behind him, Ranma focused on the growing footsteps to his side. "Why the hell'd you do that?!" he demanded to know, yelling loudly at the one who threw him; stealth was out the window now. "I can move fine on my _own_!"

"Yeah", Ryoga agreed before his mouth grew into a wicked grin, "but it was more fun that way." Hearing Ranma continuing to grumble over the growing yells behind the pair, Ryoga leered over at the running teen, "Quit whining, Saotome... You sound like a g-AH!" His comment was cut short into a small cry of panic as jets of flame shot past the running pair. Most missed by a wide margin, but a couple were uncomfortably close, impacting the ground in small explosions which shot shards of rock and dust up.

"Yeah...", a growling tone came from Ranma, who kicked up his pace, "pretty sure it's Fire Nation."

Looking at the blue shirted back of his rival speeding ahead of him, Ryoga yelled out, "You _think_?!"

--

After what seemed like forever of 'balls to the wall' running, the pair stumbled to a halt at the tall walls of their destination. The men who guarded the walls eyed the duo suspiciously, a couple resting their hands on the weapons they wore. Such was the case of the two green clad men who stood at the base of the wall on the bridge leading to it.

Tapping the hilt of his saber, the larger of the two glanced at his partner, furrowing his bushy brow. Seeing the rookie to his left gripping his pole arm in a ready stance, the man let out a deep growling sigh. 'This is just my luck...', he lamented. 'Any time I'm stuck with a newbie, there's always trouble...', the green clad veteran continued, shaking his head a bit.

His gaze swung back to the right towards the two teenagers gulping for air, though. Looking over the blue and tan shirted males, his eye twitched as he thought about the speed the pair seemed to be going up the road. When they were first spotted they were at least a kilometer away, easily seen on the barren road. Not a few minutes later, they were almost collapsed into the road before him. "What are you about...", his voice growled out, off ease with after the display.

For a long while, only the sounds of two teenagers gasping for breath and the nervous shifting of the rookie guard were heard. This passed, though, with a struggled voice, "Coming..."

"Wha...", the younger guard started, lowering the tip of his bladed shaft towards the ground as his mind grew confused. He lacked the time to ask more of his question before the tanned teen took a quick intake and exclaimed, "Fire army!"

Blinking, but taking firm grip of his sheathed blade's hilt, the bearded guardsman looked down at the still bent over youth. After a second, what was gasped out finally registered, "What?!"

This time, the one in blue pushed himself out of his bent over position to look directly at the man. As his blue eyes bore into the dark brown, he spoke in loud urgency. "Freaking Fire army back there... headed this way!" Finishing that, he dropped the arm pointed behind him and resumed his deep breathing, but at a greatly reduced volume from before. The one in the yellow bandana to his side assumed a similar state as well.

A low rumble came from the swordsman's throat as he looked over both teens and let what they said churn through his mind. A large crease appeared on his forehead as he bunched his eyebrows together. "How far?"

The guardsman to his side jerked to stare at him, the look on his face was one of incredulity mixed with fear. "B-Batoo! Y-you can't be serious! Y-you _believe_ them?!"

Hearing that, Batoo snapped his head around, yelling, "Idiot!" Waving his right hand towards the two teens, he continued loudly, "No one runs that fast for the hell of it!" Flicking his gaze back towards the one in blue, he demanded again, "How far, boy?!"

Ranma's eye twitched minutely, but he answered back after a deep breath, "Not long..."

Both guards' eyes flew wide, though Batoo mastered his quickly, narrowing them as he looked over the pair one more time. An instant later, he swung his head up and around to shout up towards the top of the wall, "Taiko! Open the gate! Cho! Get the Commander!"

Before the gate had even finished closing behind the four males, Batoo was barking orders left and right at any soldier he could see. Ranma could only stare in minor awe at the commanding presence he exerted, while the two teens sat down drinking heavily from their canteens. His legs were wore out from that running and though he wouldn't say it out loud, he needed rest. Looking over at the small box across from him, he saw Ryoga in a similar state.

All around the martial artists, men and women in green were practically flying around on their feet. More than a few of the younger ones were doing so like the end of the world was upon them. Ranma and Ryoga couldn't blame them... What they had seen on the road had unnerved them. Even with all the crazy things that had happened in Ranma's life, he'd never seen such as a full army on the move.

The same could be said for Ryoga, but he couldn't help but look at the moving figures in green on the walls and the trickle of soldiers reinforcing them. The previously lost boy then looked towards the buildings that lay away from the walls. Ranma heard him sigh, shoulders dropping with the force. Curious, he quirked his brow and asked, "What's up, Ryoga?"

Ryoga just let out a low rumbling breath through his nose as he continued to look into the city. "I was just thinking about how the coming battle was going to destroy all this..."

"Yeah", the blue eyed fighter agreed, "This is going to be bad... real bad..." Just then, a shiver ran through his spine, like death had run its scythe along it. For the first time in a while, he felt the chill of fear. Even so... there was a sliver of excitement in there.

"Enemy sighted! Enemy sighted!"

Both their heads jerked up as the call went out from the wall above. The sounds of gongs rang out a second later, quickly spreading across the entire wall. The reverberations echoed off the buildings, creating a cacophony of ringing noise, causing the teens to wince. The effect of the warning gongs had a quite different effect on the civilian population.

For the first long while, everyone the two could see in the distance were looking around in confusion. Then, after a bit, someone yelled out. It was utter chaos after that, with people dropping everything and running around in a panic. Screams of terror and confusion permeated the air, battling the gongs for supremacy. Ryoga could only look on at the chaos, before turning his gaze to his companion. It was then that it ran though his head, 'So it starts...'

"What are you two doing!?" The rough voice yelling down from overhead jerked their heads in its direction. "Get yourselves to the shelter!"

Ranma just growled up at the man, "I ain't running away!"

Hearing this, Batoo jerked his head back for a second, as if something had hit his forehead. It didn't last, as he viciously jabbed a finger down at the long haired youth, "You _fool_! This isn't a game!"

"I know that, you old geezer! I ain't gonna do nothing though!" Ranma barked back, throwing a threatening fist up at the veteran.

A twitch formed in one of Batoo's brown eyes as he looked down at the boy. A moment later, he raised his hand to indicate the city behind the pair, yelling down, "Fine! You want to play hero?! Help the civilians get to the damn shelter! Follow the guides at the end of the roads!"

Before Ranma could send another insult up at the brown haired man; Ryoga called over, "Alright!"

This shook the long haired fighter from his roll, causing him to look over at his rival with a twitching frown. A jerk of the bandana adorned head caused Ranma to look over to the side. The scene made him sigh, 'A martial artist's duty...'

Stuffing the canteen back in his backpack, he stood along with Ryoga. With a nod to each other, they ran into the city, towards the panicking civilians. Batoo only nodded at the sight before letting out a sigh and turning towards the long road leading away. The sea of red, which closed by the second, left a knot in his gut causing him to swallow as he wondered if he would survive the day.

--

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

The explosion of rock and dust that rang out seconds later caused the crowd to stop for an instant. Taking advantage of the situation, Ranma yelled out as loud as he can, "Run to the shelter!" He followed by flinging an arm towards the center of the city, "That way!"

The blue eyed teen's face turned slightly confused though as a girl pointed behind him and shrieked, setting everything into motion. As if a light switch was thrown, the stampede started just as Ranma and Ryoga flung their bodies around to look in the direction of the pointing shrieking female. Both pairs of eyes flew wide as Ryoga shouted, "Look out!"

An explosion cratered the street where the young woman stood a second ago. Shards of rock and debris showered over the form of Ranma as he covered the other teenager from the shrapnel. The ringing in their ears had only begun to fade before more loud fiery blooms burst forth all around. Jerking his head around to view the destruction the raining fireballs were wrecking on the landscape, Ryoga yelled out at the top of his lungs, "Run, you idiots! Get to the shelter!"

Shaking the blur from his sight, Ranma barely heard his companion, and totally failed to comprehend anything he might have said, as he rolled off the prone girl. He had barely gotten to her in time, but she still had scrapes and cuts from the explosion on her exposed limbs. Pulling her up to her feet, the martial artist shook her slightly, gaining her attention if barely, as he pointed away from the wall and yelled, "Go!" The shell-shocked girl just numbly nodded and somehow got her feet to work, taking her in the right direction.

Groaning, Ranma took his own staggered step, putting a hand to his head. Letting out a growl, he forced the ringing from his ears by giving his head a shake. /he cursed under his breath as he finally looked around at the damage. Smoke rose from a couple of nearby buildings and the crater in the road, but columns also rose elsewhere in the city as more shockwaves announced more impacts.

Something tickled the edge of his senses, but he couldn't place it. A moment later, the long haired fighter found himself being shaken, not unlike the woman he just sent off. "Saotome! You there?!", Ryoga's voice burst through, though it seemed muddled like his head was underwater. Seeing his rival nod while brushing off the offending hand, Ryoga nodded himself while yelling, "Fine, then hurry up!"

With a growl, Ranma gave chase as his rival ran down the street. By the time they had caught up with the fleeing mass of panic in front of them, Ranma's ears had finally settled on just ringing loudly instead of feeling like someone had done their best to shove whole onigiri into them. He winced as he could now, once more, hear the constant explosions and impacts, instead of only feeling the shockwaves and vibrations. The screams of panic weren't helping his senses either, making his stomach feel like a rotten twisted mass of... well, he couldn't really begin to describe it.

Pushing the feelings he held inside down, Ryoga saw the people ahead merging into another stream of rushing bodies at the end of the street. A lone figure that stood taller than everyone else, probably on a stand, kept yelling and waving with the stream. Looking at the figure in green and a wide circular hat of some kind, he let out a breath, thankful that there was someone to guide them.

As he took his next few steps, he turned his eyes to the right a bit, noticing movement. Two children were rushing from a house with, what seemed now standard, fear across their faces. A moment later, a woman appeared... that's when time seemed to slow to a crawl for the martial artist as his eyes flew wide. The feelings that washed over him at that instant, he knew... Reaching outward, he tried to yell out but before he even said anything, he saw the look on her face. 'She knows...'

His lungs thrust out everything they contained as he tried to yell at her. To warn her, but even as it came out, she never heard it as the fireball that was her house drowned out any and all the fanged martial artist might have let loose. By the time he had even set the next foot down on the ground, he watched, in painful slow motion, as the building shuddered, flexed and flew out into the street. As he thrust himself forward, pushing his body onward with everything he could... he could only look on and the woman disappear, covered from view by wood and rock, even as debris still flew in the air. Gritting his teeth, so hard he swore he felt them cracking under the pressure, he jetted forward once more.

Somehow, he found himself ten meters from where he once was only a fraction of a second before. Behind him were twin shrieks and before him were flying parts of ruin. Ranma could only watch from the quickly closing distance as his blue eyes viewed the spectacle of Ryoga yelling at the top of his lungs. If Ranma had blinked at that instant, he would have missed the sight of pure focus from Ryoga as his fists almost blurred. Like a second hand ticking to the next position, it was over and everything in the air before the fanged, screaming being on the street turned to dust where it hung.

At the same moment, time ramped forward of its own accord, thrusting both martial artists back into the normal time stream. Behind the bandana clad teen, the single toned cries of fear and panic quickly shifted to screams of, "Mama!" Ryoga twisted his body around just enough to swing his hard eyes to the boy and girl behind him. As Ranma reached the three, he heard Ryoga say something that broke through the chaos around them, as clear as if he had said it directly into his ear in a silent room, "Take them and go."

The next instant, where the two screaming children were... they weren't. Under the increased load of their combined weight, with them screaming over his shoulder for their mother, Ranma tore up the street. Before he even made it to the corner, not a few buildings away, he felt a flash of ki and heard another explosion, but ignored it as he jumped up out of the streets and onto the buildings that ran along them. From his new height, he quickly located his destination and made impossible distances as he covered ground like a madman.

In minutes, he was setting the bawling children on the ground as they grabbed onto his shirt. He could feel their tears soaking through it as they still cried out and his heart wrenched in his chest. Instinctively he kneeled down, wrapping his arms around the boy and girl, holding them close in an effort to comfort the two. He didn't know how long he was there holding the distraught pair before Ranma heard a familiar voice behind him amidst the nearby chaos of people retreating to the shelter.

What was said, it didn't matter as he swung his gaze around to see Ryoga, cradling a broken woman in his arms. Their eyes met, steel on steel, for a split second before the long haired martial artist visually examined the person carried in his friend's arms. Her face, along with hers and the fanged fighters shirts were covered in fresh blood and a mangled arm seemed to hang... dangling at an odd angle with drops of blood hitting the ground beneath it.

The next events blurred together for the fighters, as people finally rushed over with a litter and took the woman from Ryoga, rushing the broken body away. At the same time, another person came and took the children out of Ranma's grasp, which were trying to keep them from running over an interfering with the efforts to place their mother on the cloth carry. As the boy and girl were taken with their mother, Ranma looked up at Ryoga. The look fanged fighter saw in his rivals eyes made him swallow as she bore into him with icy cold blue eyes filled with wetness.

"They will pay."

As the words entered his skull, Ryoga felt the contradiction held within them. There was no emotion held in those words, but at the same time he couldn't think of another time he had heard so much emotion come from Ranma's mouth. He found himself locked into those hard piercing eyes; he saw in them the promise of pain. With a quick nod, the spaces they once occupied were empty.

--

The Earth guard before him bore the face of one who knew he was dead. The person before him could see it... feel it. It sickened him but he fought on, caught up in the moment. He was fighting for his own survival now, in the midst of the grand melee, not longer for just the glory of his nation and the Fire Lord. With one last battle yell, he thrust his sword one more time... and heard a crack as his vision shifted to the side, laterally. Then... he saw no more.

Even as Ranma retracted her bo from its thrust, she was moving in a new direction. All around her, the screams of the injured and dying rang throughout the dins of combat. Weapons clashed against another, men and women yelled, fire and rocks flew... each causing their own unique explosive sounds. She heard none of it.

Ryoga only saw flashes of the blue and red blur in the mass of bodies, fighting or downed. He, himself, was engrossed in his own private vengeance as he swung his parasol in a wide arc, blowing through the defense the figure in red before him held. The rag doll that was once a human being was thrown into the air, flying end over end into another mass of blood red. He never saw the effects his impromptu projectile had on his secondary victims, as he turned and thrust forward on his chi powered legs, parasol leading the demon of fangs' yells.

A blue blur shot up into the air, jerking her head around, red mane flying with the movement. Another body flew through the space she had just vacated, his cry following his flight until the sickening crunch of body against wall stopped it. She didn't care; Ranma had found her next target, her next victim of her rage. It was almost if gravity had waited for her finish her search, as it was only then that she fell downward.

Bringing her bo with her in an overhead smash, she brought it down onto the shoulder of an unsuspecting soldier. The crunch of bones breaking could be heard for feet, over the omnipresent din of combat, as the entire left side of his body, from shoulder to foot, started collapsing without anything to support it. At the same instant, a distinctive snapping sound could be heard as the wooden rod, a foot taller than she was, broke in twain. Her feet had only tapped the ground before she hopped into the air again, snapping a roundhouse into the man's head, snapping it, even as he fell to the ground.

The sea of red parted for the madman, with those who didn't finding themselves out of the way out of their own accord. Their ranks were in disarray at seeing the ferocity the teenager held in his face and moves, but steeled themselves as soldiers of the Fire Nation. Within seconds, they had closed their gaps and surrounded the bloodied tan clad warrior. As they crowded him, he grinned in grim satisfaction. 'I have them right where I want them...'

Dodging a few weapons from the eager, he growled. Those that heard it gave pause, if only for a split instant, but that was enough. Within that hair of time, Ryoga focused all his ki into his already chi enhanced weapon. With a loud roar, he flipped his grip on it and jammed it straight down into the solid rock at their feet. In the second that passed, nothing happened as grins grew on the soldier's faces. Then confusion set in, but only those who were close enough to see the boy's own face; his grin still held and was wider than before.

Batoo spared a glance down the wall, along with the opponent he was currently occupied with. They didn't know what was happening, but... something demanded their attention. They saw the figure in the midst of the red. Batoo's eyes became somber as he knew the boy was dead, whether he was at this second or not. Knowing that, he turned back a second before the soldier before him. With a quick thrust, he drove his sword past his unwary opponent's guard. There was a gasp following the sound of metal on flesh.

With a grim look on his face, of one who had done this too many times that any human should, Batoo started to pull his sword from the body. He never got that far, though, as an explosion ripped through the air from down below. Jerking his eyes over the side of the wall again, he stared, along with many others both above on the wall and down below in the midst of it, as bodies of red were flung dozens of meters into the air. Rock and dust flew with them, causing everyone around to dodge the falling artillery or be crushed by it.

If he had bothered to look about, instead of at the massive cloud of dust, the veteran would have sworn that the battle had paused, if only for a few moments in respect to how grand the blast was. His eyes grew wide, threatening to pop out of his head, though, when he saw the dust start to clear. There, in the middle of a giant crater, easily able to hold a house in its area, stood a lone figure.

Ryoga slowly stood up, feeling the tattered remains of his bloody cloths fluttering in the slight breeze. He felt the stings of the scrapes and cuts across his body, but he paid them no heed. His brown eyes surveyed the empty area around him, noticing he was a good three meters below where he was a moment before. Those same eyes twitched, though, as he saw red encroaching from the edges. As they observed the teenager though, the soldiers gave him the respect one would for a known poisonous snake.

_"Retreat! Fall back!"_

Ranma finally felt something break her consciousness as she jerked her head towards the command. She never saw the individual, but suddenly, she knew the tide of the fight had changed drastically as horns filled the air. Bouts of flame jet through the air as Fire took the initiative. Those around the girl, who had been screaming in hellish rage seconds before, suddenly found an eerie clam fall over her. Those who looked into her face found nothing, no emotion, no thoughts, just the cold hard look of a veteran fighter.

Then she wasn't there. Flashes of blue could be seen around the immediate area, but no one really saw her. The only way you knew of her passing was the chill wind that seemed to follow in her wake as she made laps in a quickly closing spiral. Then, as quick as it started, she reappeared, right in the middle of a small company of red armor. They just only had enough time to realize and start to twist around before it happened. With a jerk, her eyes flashed open, revealing those icy blue orbs which glowed with inner strength. Crying out, she thrust her right fist into the air, screaming words that caused Ryoga to jerk his head towards it, "Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

Those closest to the girl dropped their weapons, looking into the cold eyes she held, they swore they were looking at the avatar of death. Beauty was just a disguised exterior of the deadly... being, it held within. Had they the time to say such things, she would have agreed, but before they could utter a single word...

It started as a slight breeze, but before anyone felt that, the breeze became a roaring torrent of wind and slicing currents. Within seconds, she stood in the center of a spiraling vortex of winds, dust and bodies. Those on the outside of the vortex stared in awe at the female in the center, stalk still in calm almost disinterest, ignoring the bodies being ripped and torn above her... like she was unaware of the blood and gore which flew all around, staining her blue a sickly dark color.

Eyes flew wide, though, when another teen entered the vortex, his torn and tattered clothes fluttering in the center's breeze. She never gave an indication that she knew or cared that he was there. The male, though, looked out into the faces that stared inward and he cast about a grim visage to those who saw it. Then, as one, they moved. Those who were slow in getting out of their way found themselves wishing they weren't once they woke... if they ever did.

--

The tunnel which the entered was light by what looked like glowing crystal, casting dim light which was barely usable. The teenagers had no problem though, as they walked down the long stretch with the tail end of the green clad guards who made it. They gave the pair a respectful distance, knowing their efforts in the battle first hand, but any time one looked at either, there was a tinge of fear in their eyes as they regarded the male and female combo. If either one noticed, they didn't show it, though.

When they finally reached the end of the long tunnel, the martial artists looked around. They found themselves in the 'shelter' but found out that just meant they were in a network of underground caves. One that was relatively well dug out but a cave network none the less. There were more of the glowing crystals scattered around, giving the area enough light to work by, but barely. Without another glance, the blood splattered girl strode out into the network. The tattered clothed male followed, just as wordlessly.

The sounds of crying could be heard throughout the network of tunnels as the pair made their way deeper. Every once in a while, a guard or civilian would look at the pair; emotions of confusion, pity, knowing, sorrow or fear... sometimes a mixture, could be seen from their eyes. Slowly, both of them started to respond back to the looks, flicking their gaze back. The usual result was the person dropping their eyes at being caught, but on the rare chance, the person would hold their gaze at the pair past.

Finally, Ranma stopped and ducked into a small alcove. A few seconds later, she was sitting down against a wall, having shucked her pack beside her. Ryoga entered a second later and did the same. Then... they just stared into the darkness. Neither felt there was anything worth talking about at the moment and neither wanted to say anything even if there was. It stayed like that for a long while.

"I'm sorry."

Both looked up and over to the entrance at hearing the tired voice. Ryoga quirked an eyebrow at the person and statement he had heard. "Sorry?"

Batoo looked down on the two fighters before him and sighed a long and old sounding sigh. Looking at them with old and tired eyes, he sat down along a wall where he could face them. "I'm sorry you two got involved. It's not something I would wish on anyone."

He looked at them as they both did the same to him. He could see in their eyes what he saw in any veteran's eyes... and it both saddened and scared him to see that look on their faces. "You shouldn't have been caught up in that... you should have gone to the shelters with..."

"Stop..."

The word caused the man to look at the red haired girl who had uttered it. She saw him direct his gaze to her and saw the confused look in his eye without him saying anything. "Stop saying you're sorry. I... _we_ did what we did cause we wanted to."

"Why... why would", Batoo started, but never got to finish his question as another male voice cut him off. "Because... because it felt... right."

The guard before them let out another long tired sigh and ran a hand through his brown hair. After a second, he looked over at the teen and nodded slightly for him to continue. Ryoga flashed a glance over at his red haired companion but started up again, "We... I lost it." He took a deep breath and let it out. "A lady and her children almost died in front of me. I saved the children, I don't know how, but..." His voice failed Ryoga at that moment, his throat felling like the Sahara desert.

"She...", Ranma picked up, her voice still almost emotionless but barely contained, "I took her children to the shelter while Ryoga tried to save her..." Her gaze dropped to the floor, red bangs covering her face. "She... She didn't look good..."

The green clad man just sat there, soaking it in, knowing what was coming but knowing they needed to talk. He had seen it enough... and experienced it to know. "Her... the-they kept screaming 'Mama' over and over. I didn't know if sh... Ryoga could...", she stuttered but stopped to take a ragged breath. As she started back up, the air seemed to chill as she looked up at Batoo. He couldn't help but shiver at the cold cutting edge in her voice, "'They will pay...' That's all I could think of."

"Same here...", Ryoga agreed, finding his voice once more with a nod. His tone was even but lacked the bite the girl's did as he continued, "The next thing I know, I'm wading through red. I-I felt the impacts... I saw the damage, but... I didn't _care_. No... I was..." As he finished, he put his head into his hands as what he did hit in full force.

"It felt good." Ranma drew the older man's gaze as she said that, in the cold voice. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, which she took advantage of, "I made them _pay_..."

Batoo just shook his head and sighed. "Still... I'm sorry." Seeing the glare she flashed at him, he coughed and started again, "Alright... Thank you, then." This statement caused Ryoga to raise his head and look at the older male in confusion. "You saved lives... like those of my men."

"No..." Both sets of brown eyes looked over into blue ones. There was a lack of ice in her voice as she spoke again, "We... we didn't save lives... we _took_ them." There was still a lack of emotion in it, though.

Batoo looked at her for a bit and then sagely nodded, knowing what she meant. It still didn't comfort the old feeling man. Running a hand down his beard, he let out a low hum as he pondered something. Finally, he stood slowly, looking at both of the teens one more time. "True, but you did save some of my men and civilians in the process." Saying that, he put his hands in front of him in a salute and bowed slightly, "For that, I thank you both." Rising to full height again, he put up a grim grin, "I hope you can get some rest soon."

--

Ranma let out a light moan as she cracked her eyes open and then fluttered them to see Akane and Kasumi looking down at her. Letting out another moan, she flicked her eyes from Kasumi's happy smile to Akane's concerned look. Weakly, she asked, "What happened?"

Akane wiped a tear from and eye. "Baka... You and Ryoga had another fight."

Pushing herself up to a sitting position, Ranma looked around at the interior of the Tendo's living room. Finally, Ranma's sight settled back between the two girls looking at her. Raising her hands before her face, she flexed them, "It was all a dream..."

Hearing a knock at the front door, Kasumi called out, "Hai!" A second later, she stood and made her way towards the entrance.

"All a dream?" Akane gave the redhead a curious look before it turned dark.

Seeing her fiancée's face like that, Ranma let out a nervous laugh, "Nothing... Never mind..." Seeing Akane calm down, just a bit, a curious grin sported Ranma's face. "So..." She never got any farther as an explosion rocked the house, dust flying from the hallway towards the entrance.

"Kasumi!"

Like a rocket, the redhead shot off the bedroll she had woken up on and ran towards the entrance to the household... only to screech to a halt. At the end of the small hallway, instead of the front door and Kasumi, her blue eyes only saw a pile of rubble filling the entirety of the hallway. She stalled...

'I have to help Kasumi... why can't I move...'

Finally, the redhead's body did move, but it was because of a sound behind her. A sickening sound that made her spine freeze colder than if someone had ripped it out and dumped liquid nitrogen on it. It was a sound she hoped she would never hear again, "R-Ran...ma..."

When she finally turned around, she saw Akane standing there, eyes wide and pupils almost nonexistent. Her mouth was partly open as her lips twitched along with her eyes. A weak and shaky hand reached out towards the redhead, but jerked as the sword was pulled from her body. The sounds of metal scraping out of flesh were slow and gut wrenching, but Ranma couldn't move. Even as the dark haired girl reached forward one more time, weakly taking an unsteady step to fall against the smaller girl, all the redhead could do was follow her travel with her eyes.

Her gaze stayed on the crumpled form on the floor, as a pool of blood formed underneath her. 'Move! Move, damn you!', Ranma screamed in her head but nothing happened. Slowly, her gaze rose, seeing the dark red boots and traveling the blood red armor all the way up till she was facing the maniacal grin the man wore. She watched helplessly as he raised his sword up and licked off the thick staining liquid, all the while never losing that grin, or the piercing crazed eyes he wore. Then, with a quick laugh, his eyes started to burn and he thrust forward... The air was pierced with a girl's scream of pure terror.

Ranma jerked and waited, breathing hard. The strike never came. Suddenly, there was the sound of movement and a grunt. Hearing that, Ranma flung her eyes open and spun her head towards it... and saw Ryoga in a battle stance, looking around wildly. After a moment, Ryoga relaxed his arms a bit and finally saw the redhead, as if for the first time.

As Ryoga looked at her, his hands slowly fell limply to his sides. A shiver ran up his spine as he adjusted his feet to a normal stance. He saw in her eyes something he hadn't seen ever... pure unfiltered fear. He didn't like it, not one bit.

After a few seconds of watching the girl, he noticed she wasn't looking at him anymore. Well, her eyes were pointed at him, but he could see a distant look in those azure orbs. Ranma was looking through him, at something only she could see and the sight continued to disturb the fanged fighter. "Ranma?" When his companion didn't respond, he waved a hand in front of her face while repeating her name once more.

"Is there something wrong? Is she alright?"

Ryoga turned his head towards the voice and saw an older woman standing there in a plain tan dress. "I-I...", he tan clad youth stuttered as he slowly sat down. Putting a hand to his forehead he looked over to Ranma once more, "I don't... know."

Nodding slightly at the reaction she got from Ryoga, the long haired woman moved over towards the spaced out teenager and sat down beside her. She noticed that the girl didn't react to her being so close and it made her concerned. "Honey?", she lightly called out, but got no response.

"Her name is Ranma..."

Glancing at the boy across the alcove, she nodded a quick thanks to him and tried again. "Ranma-chan?" Still not receiving a response, the woman softly placed a hand on the redhead's. She saw and felt Ranma tense up and draw a quick breath before slowly turning her head and eyes towards the woman. Looking into those blue eyes, she asked in a motherly tone, "What's wrong, dear?"

The woman looking into Ranma's eyes finally saw them focus and she finally saw the full emotion in them, other than the overwhelming fear. She saw pain and worry in the undercurrents, even before the redhead spoke out, "I-I..." She closed her mouth and swallowed. "I was home... Akane and Kasumi were there..."

Ryoga raised his head up to stare at the redhead through wide brown eyes. 'Akane...' He swallowed hard and listened intently.

"T-There... there was someone at the door", she continued as she looked into the woman's face. Her voice dropped to a whisper, though, "K-Kasumi..." Tears filled her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks as she struggled to continue, "S-she... answered and... and..."

Seeing the girl choke up, the woman squeezed her hand and nodded somberly. Barely whispering, the blue eyed teenager tried to go on, "T-there was a... an explosion..." Ryoga took a sharp intake at that, while Ranma continued, "I-I ran, but... I-I couldn't... couldn't find her..."

The woman put an arm around the girl and felt Ranma fall into her embrace. She still held onto the girl's smaller hand with the other, giving it another squeeze. "It's alright, dear..."

"N-No... A-Akane...", the redhead tried to start before she had to take a shuddering breath. Ryoga looked on with rapt attention, his mouth dry. The woman heard him whisper, "Akane...", from across the room.

Rubbing her back a little with her hand, the older woman tried to calm the girl some while trying to get her to let it, whatever it was, out, "What happened, dear?"

"S-she... she...", tried to start before letting out a sob, "She... he... he _killed_ her!" With that, Ranma started sobbing in earnest and the woman quickly wrapped both arms around the distraught girl as the redhead did the same, clinging for dear life. Across the room, Ryoga had stopped breathing all together and was ramrod straight as he sat against the wall. It was many moments before his body demanded air, forcing him to breathe or pass out.

The woman just kept trying to comfort the short teenager in her arms, softly repeating, "It's ok... you're safe now..." It was all for naught as the girl cried out through her sobs, "S-she... she reached out... I-I couldn't... I couldn't do anything!" She continued sobbing into the woman's shoulder, repeating those last four words over and over.

Reaching up to stroke the girl's hair, the woman noticed the mess it was. It was tangled and matted... along with something she rather not think about at the moment. She lowered her hand to resume rubbing the girl's back while looking over pointedly towards Ryoga. He saw the movement and then saw her mouth, "Nightmare?" He numbly nodded, though everything Ranma let loose affected him the same as if it were real.

Nodding to herself, the woman slowly rocked the girl in her embrace while continuing her comforting. It was a long while before the blue eyed girl had calmed down and stopped sobbing but even then, she still shuttered as she breathed. While she never let go of the woman, Ranma loosened her grip on her. The woman noticed this and looked down to ask, "Are you feeling better?"

All she received back was a silent nod, but it was enough to make the woman smile slightly. She could tell the girl in her arms was emotionally drained at the moment and she couldn't fault her one bit. Glancing over at the boy across the room, she saw his head back in his hands once again. "Um..."

"Ryoga"

Nodding, she continued, "Ryoga-kun... We'll be right back. Is that ok?" Seeing his silent nod, she tried standing up while assisting Ranma, "Come on, dear... let's clean you up some." The teen in question just nodded numbly and stood with the help. Looking down, at the floor, she opened the small pack and grabbed the only spare set of cloths, folding them under an arm.

Looking over to Ryoga, she stated, "Maybe you should do the same, Ryoga-kun..." She grinned slightly as she guessed he hadn't realized his condition until just that moment, but it was a nervous one. With that, she led the girl out of the cubby.

--

It was a while later before Ranma returned with the woman. Ryoga had had more than enough time to change cloths, though he decided against actually washing due to the presumed lack of hot water due to the situation. He was back, sitting where he was before, when he looked up to see his friend come in. She had cleaned up well, wearing clean clothes and... Ryoga noticed her hair was tied back into a ponytail at her neck.

Looking beyond the redhead, he saw the woman smiling slightly as she looked over them both, though her eyes lingered on him a few moments longer. Her attention was wrenched away, though, as Ranma turned to her and bowed slightly, saying, "Thank you, Laika-san."

"It's alright, dear. I'll be around if you need a shoulder", the woman, now known to Ryoga as Laika, said with a motherly smile. She watched as Ranma moved over to the spot she started from and sat down once more. Laika's smile dropped a bit at the sight of her still acting numb like that, but chalked it up to just being emotionally tired.

She did turn towards Ryoga as she saw him stand and bow to her. Her smile returned slightly when he also thanked her, but she could tell he wasn't alright, either. She let out a sigh, 'He's a boy...' Seeing him sit back down, she shook her head and mentioned she'd be around one more time before she left the two alone. Laika nodded one last time when she heard two echoing, "Thanks".

Watching the woman leave, Ryoga looked over to his redheaded sometimes friend and let out a deep sigh. She was staring off into space, but this time, at least, it was in thought and not in stark terror. The silence was thick between the two as he finally rested his head in his hands once more. After a long while, he got tired of it, though, and spoke up, "Hey, Saotome..."

She continued to stare off into space, but she did respond with a, "Mmm..."

"Are you ok?"

Silence reined once more in the small area as she performed more of the same. A few moments later, she responded in an even voice, "I don't know..."

Ryoga raised his head and blinked a couple of times. 'You don't know?', he repeated in his head, confused and a little worried. "What happened?"

More silence followed until she once more said, "I don't know..."

"What?" Ryoga had his brow creased in confusion, out and plain in the open now. He kept his eye on the blue eyed martial artist as he continued his questioning. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

He jerked his head back as she swung her own around to glare at him, "It _means_ 'I don't know', damn it!"

The fanged victim of the abrupt verbal assault blinked a few times in response. Eventually, he made a face as he raised an eyebrow at her, all the while not making a sound. She kept her eyes trained on him the entire time. Finally, she blew a long sigh before putting her fingers to her forehead and closing her eyes.

She spoke in a measured voice to the boy, "Look, Ryoga... I'm sorry. I really don't know what happened." Letting out another sigh, she dropped her hand and turned her gaze away, "All I know is that was the worst dream I've ever had in a long... long time. It scared the shit out of me."

She glanced back with her eyes and saw Ryoga nod, still listening. "In it, I woke up back home, in the Tendo's. It felt... _real_. Akane and Kasumi were there. Then Kasumi answered the door... then...", she stopped at that, and took a breath. "It reminded me of that woman... Just... boom and then..."

She turned her head back to Ryoga but put her hands in her lap, gripping her shirt. "Then... I heard Akane behind me... I..." Ranma closed her eyes for another breath before opening them again. The room had chilled a few degrees in that timeframe. When she continued, it was cold and almost emotionless, "I saw the scariest thing I could... even scarier than _cats_."

Ryoga blinked again and slowly nodded, recognizing Ranma's lack of stutter even saying the word. The blood faded from his face, though, as the redhead described what she saw in a cold and measured voice, "Akane was dying right in front of me. A blade stuck out through her chest as she reached out with a weak hand... Then, the blade jerked out and she fell against me only to fall slowly to the floor."

She saw his reaction and held back for a bit, knowing even the 'Soul of Ice' wasn't going to hold up if she didn't give herself some downtime. After she felt in more control she continued, "The worst part... was the fact that I couldn't do anything..." She unconsciously shivered, despite the Amazonian technique. "I couldn't do a damn thing for either of them... or stop the bastard from trying to kill me either...", she finished, voice and eyes lowering to a whisper at the end.

"Who...", Ryoga finally asked, gaining her gaze once more after a few moments of silence. "Who was it?"

"A Fire Nation soldier..."

Ryoga let out a loud long sigh as he slumped against the wall. A long while of nothing transferred between the two until Ryoga spoke up again, "It was just a dream... a nightmare... A really, really scary one..." He let out a nervous laugh, "Hell, Saotome, it wasn't even my dream and it scared me." He looked up at his rival with a ghost of a wry grin on his face.

Ranma just looked at the fanged male and let out a sigh. She then rolled over and pulled her pack up as a pillow. "Wake me if something happens..."

Ryoga just turned his head towards the opening to their shared area, hearing the starts of a crying child echoing from far in the distance. "Yeah... sure thing, Saotome..."

--

"Ranma", the low call went out to the redhead. The only response was a low moan of discontent. "Saotome, wake up", another call went out, slightly louder. This time the sleeping girl repositioned herself and moaned in sleepy annoyance.

Ryoga grinned and finally said, "Fine, if you don't want your food, I'll eat it."

That rammed into her head with the force of Akane's mallet attack, shooting her eyes wide open as she jerked into a sitting position. "Wha...", she started up before stalling. Across from her was a green haired girl in tan clothing holding out a bowl of... something.

Nodding in thanks, Ranma accepted the bowl while noticing the bowl on the floor near Ryoga along with a chunk of bread. After her hands were empty, Ryoga tore the bread in half, or as close as she could get it, and handed half over as well. The... soup... was bad, but it was something, as they ate it without... too much complaint.

"So... What happened to you?"

Ryoga just rolled her eyes at hearing that, "What do you think happened? Turned the corner and collided with someone carrying a basin of water..." The green haired girl just let out a sigh and a shrug, "Whatever... I planned on cleaning up anyways and there's pretty much no hot water here."

Ranma just groaned at hearing the last bit. 'Great... more time in this body...', she thought, leaving it off with a small snort. Shaking her head, Ranma just pulled another spoonful of soup to her mouth and tried to remember that it was better than Akane's food. "So, what now", she asked rhetorically.

"Well, that depends on you two..."

Both girls jerked their eyes towards the entrance and saw the slightly less tired figure of Batoo. "What do you mean?" the redhead asked with an eyebrow raised.

Grinning slightly, the old veteran replied, "I saw how fast you moved and your friend..." He stopped as he turned his gaze to the green haired girl on the other side and blinked. 'Same clothes... Definately _not_ a guy though...', ran though his head. Scratching the back of his neck, he looked confused, "Uh... who's she and where's the Earthbender that was with you?"

Both girls shot looks at each other and after a split second of mind numbing work, Ryoga spoke up, "I... I'm his sister... Ryo... Ryoko."

Ranma just looked at the green haired girl for a second, processing the info in her head. "Yeah, Ryoko and I were here to meet up with our brothers. I'm Ranko, by the way", she finished with a small wave.

"Uh... right", Batoo just said, as he finished rubbing his neck and dropped his hand. Taking another look between the two, he just shrugged, "Ok, do you know where your brother is?"

"Umm...", Ryoga let out while biting her lip slightly. Ranma jumped to the rescue though, saying, "He's somewhere around here with my brother. What do you need though? Ryoko's just as good as Ryoga."

Looking from the redhead to the girl crowned with the jade main, he shrugged. "It's no business of mine what you're brothers are doing, as long as they keep out of trouble. Anyways, what I came here for is to ask a favor of, well, you two, now."

The two girls looked at each other for a second, confusion on their face. Turning back to Batoo, Ryoga asked, "What kind of favor?"

"Well...", he replied, raising a hand, "I can't say. My commander wishes to ask you himself after hearing of you and your brother's abilities." He finished by pointing at Ranma and then Ryoga. "I'll tell you two now that we can't force you, her brother and her have already done a lot, as it is. I figure you might get a little bored down here, though."

The girls sent another glance at each other, with Ryoga shrugging. Ranma looked back up at Batoo and grinned, "Alright, we can talk. Just let us finish... this, first." She made a face while indicating the half gone soup.

Batoo couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Of course, of course. Just look ask any guard to lead you to the commander. I'll be there waiting with him." With that, he stood and gave a quick salute, grinning when they raised their hands in a quick wave as he left.

After a few moments, Ryoga spoke up, "So... what do you think?"

Making a sour look before draining the last of her soup, she replied, "The soup is terrible." Hearing the snort from across the small area, she grinned, "I don't know... but it should be interesting."

Ryoga could only shake her head.

--

After talking with the commander, Ranma and Ryoga became smugglers for the resistance that formed after the king was captured. Things were hectic starting out, with the Fire Nation soldiers on full alert and a lot of civilians in the shelter, but the civilians were soon released outside with the ones who didn't make it in time once the guards found out that the Fire Nation was just taking over and not slaughtering them. The resistance still needed food runs, though, which the pair could perform easier than the regular guards, while the guards caused general problems for the Fire Nation.

It was on one of these runs that a pair of teenagers stopped in a cluttered alleyway, waiting out a patrol. "Why are we still here, Saotome", Ryoga asked in a hushed whisper. "What about the Avatar?"

The redhead frowned as she thought about it. She agreed that they were stuck in a rut, but what else were they going to do? "You know where to go next?"

"No... but why stay _here_?", Ryoga asked back. Ranma just shrugged thought about it for a second. Then, she tried to fight back a laugh that came out a muffled snort, before showing a wide grin, "Call it... woman's intuition!" She received a slap to the back of the head, kept light only to keep from making too much sound.

The grin faded away instantly from the redhead as she and her companion crouched down at the sound of approaching footsteps in the street. From behind the rubble, they heard the footsteps fade away into the distance. With a quick nod, they shot across in silence under the light moonlight. In the next alleyway, Ranma got a much harder smack upside the head, to which she hissed back, "Hey!" Ranma knew she deserved it, but still...

As they reached the edge of the next street, Ryoga glanced around the corner after listening for a second. Nodding, she was about to step out when she jumped back and they both ducked down, peering over some boxes. A manhole cover in the street made a quick racket before moving to the side. Wary, the martial artists observed a boy in yellow and orange climb out after he scanned the area. He was quickly followed by a girl in a dark cloak, but flashes of sky blue could be seen underneath.

While curious of the pair, both hiding girls jerked their sight to a human sized blob of green sludge that also climbed out. The cloaked girl stepped back, face looking disgusted before glancing around quickly. Finding a nearby rain barrel, she sprayed down the goop, which turned into a very wet male. A second later, the yellow bald boy slashed with his staff and a gust of air practically blew the older male dry.

Ranma's eyes went wide at that, and after a quick glance at Ryoga, she saw the fangs showing through a grinning face. While they observed a slightly entertaining and embarrassing reaction from the older male with some small pintapus stuck to his face, Ryoga leaned over to Ranma and whispered, "Woman's intuition, huh?"

Ranma's face flushed as she dropped her eyes to the ground, "You're not going to let that go, huh?"

The grin on the fanged girls face could be seen from a mile away, "No way!"

Their antics were quickly silenced though as a patrol challenged the three youths in the street. After some quick thinking by using the marks left by the pintapus, they convinced the patrol to leave them alone. After a few moments, Ryoga and Ranma quickly nodded to each other and jumped out of the alley. Moving quickly and silently, they caught up to the three ahead of them.

"That was some quick thinking, back there", Ranma spoke up from one side of the trio.

The boy in yellow and orange grinned and replied, "Yeah! It _was_ great, Katara!" They walked for a few more steps before his brain finally realized something. 'Katara's on my right and...' Slowly, he turned his head to the left, noticing a girl there beside him who was defiantly _not_ Katara.

"Yo", she said with a grin. With a quick, "Gah!", all three of the trio were in battle stances. Seeing this, the redhead sighed, "Oh, come on... We don't want to fight you..."

Katara quirked an eyebrow and asked, "We?" Ranma just pointed behind them, which caused them to turn their heads... to see a green haired girl around the same height as Sokka behind them. Ryoga just waved nervously, saying, "Uh... nice to meet you?"

Quickly, they shifted their formation to keep an eye on both of them. "What do you want", the tall male asked suspiciously eyeing the Ryoga. He seemed to have a... club or something in his hand in a defensive stance.

"Uh... well, we need the Avatar's help", Ranma replied, "and you want to see the king, right?"

"How'd you know I'm the Avatar", Aang asked in shock. He quickly checked his head and felt the makeshift headgear still on.

Ranma looked sheepish as she replied, "Umm... I didn't? Well... not totally. It was sort of a guess after seeing you Airbend..." Shaking her head, she continued, "Either way, can we get off the streets before another patrol comes around?" Still seeing the distrust in their faces, she let out a sigh before she turned on the puppy dog eyes, "Please?"

Behind the trio, Ryoga just put a hand to her forehead and let out a long sigh. 'It's going to be a _long_ night... I know it...'

--

A few minutes later, all five of them were a couple blocks away in an alleyway which opened into a small open area behind a couple of shops. Ranma and Ryoga were sitting on a couple of empty boxes while the other three stood eyeing them, Sokka the most suspiciously.

"Okay... now let's start from the beginning... Who are you two?" He asked, starting the interrogation.

"I'm Ryoga and she's Ranma", the green haired girl replied nodding towards the redhead. "What's your name?"

"Oh, it's Sokka...", he replied without thinking, then stopped and complained, "Hey! _I'm_ asking the questions here!"

"Keep it down!", Ranma hissed at him after he raised his voice and octave. The girl from their own group nodded at that, giving the boy a look.

"Um... why do you need my help?"

Ranma shifted her gaze to Aang, "Well... This is going to sound crazy..." She could see Ryoga nodding out of the corner of her eye, "but we need your help to get home."

Immediately, all three of them were back in a defensive stances; Aang with staff, Katara with a snake of water and Sokka with his club. Ranma just blinked and nervously asked, "Uh... did I say something wrong?"

"Probably, knowing our luck", Ryoga replied from beside her.

After a few seconds, Aang slowly dropped his staff and just looked at the older teenagers before him. "Guys, I think it's ok..."

"How can you be sure, Aang", Katara asked, not dropping her stance.

"I don't know, it's just a feeling", he replied with a shrug. "Plus, they didn't attack us first when they snuck up on us."

The waterbender looked at the boy beside her and after a few more seconds, willed the water back into the water skin on her hip. Sokka, though, kept his weapon out, eyeing the martial artists. "Why do you need _Aang's_ help to get home?"

"Okay, like Ranma said, this is going to sound crazy. Hell, I didn't believe it myself when we found out...", the trio looked oddly at the green haired girl as she admitted her own disbelief. "We arnt from this world", Ryoga finally said, baring it out in the open.

The three before the martial artists look like they had just said the sky was green with orange polka dots or that one plus one equaled three. "You aren't _what_?!", Sokka blurted out.

Ranma just pinched the bridge of her nose, "We are from another world... Long story short, Ryoga was casting a spell and I caused... her to goof it up. Poof, here we are in your world."

"Yeah, right! And _I'm_ Fire Lord Ozai! Ow!" Sokka quickly reached up and rubbed the back of his head, where Katara had smacked it.

"Sorry about my brother, but it _is_ hard to believe. Do you have any proof", the brown haired girl asked the two others.

Ryoga pointed to her head, "Uh... I'm betting you don't see green or red hair every day, right?" Ranma nodded in agreement.

"Easy! You dye it. Unless you can prove that you don't", Sokka said with a smug grin on his face. The two martial artists' faces quickly flushed and Sokka got another hand to the back of his head via his sister. "Hey, what was _that_ one for!?", asked, but seeing the death glare he got from her, he quickly stepped back. A second later, ralization flashed across his face and had the decency to look sheepish as he uttered, "Oh... _Oh_! Uh... sorry."

Aang drew center as he asked, "Do you have anything else?"

"Uh... well, there's _one_ thing, but we can't show at the moment", Ryoga said, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah... but how about _this_?", Ranma said as she held up a palm and a glowing sphere the size of her head appeared in it.

"Whoa... What's that...", the young avatar asked in amazement. The two siblings could only nod in agreement. 'Thank Kami-sama!', she thought as she smiled. "This is Ki... or life energy." She let the tree look at it for a while longer before reabsorbing it into her body. "Ryoga can do the same thing", she continued, as it was shown by the girl beside her. After a few moments, she, too, reabsorbed the ki.

"Okay, fine", Sokka started again, waving his hands around a little before pointing at Aang, "Even if you are from another world, why do you think Aang can send you back?"

"Well...", Ranma started up, scratching the base of her ponytail, "we were just hoping he could, since he's supposed to be the most powerful person in the world... and if he couldn't, he might know someone who _could_..." The next bit, she said in a lower voice, "I just didn't expect the Avatar to be a kid..."

Aang looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, "It's a long story..." He sighed then, "I'm also not the most powerful person... I've only learned Air and Water Bending. I still need to learn Earth and Fire Bending..." Katara put a hand on Aang's shoulder at that.

Ryoga looked crestfallen at hearing and seeing that, biting her lip some. "H-how... How about we help you for now..." Katara looked at the two, seeing the looks in their faces. "Please..."

Both the yellow clad boy and brown haired girl looked at each other and then finally to the taller male of their group. He looked over them and then over two the two sitting martial artists. After a few seconds, he sighed and looked back to Aang. With a shrug he admitted, "It's your decision, Aang."

The young Avatar nodded and looked over to the two older girls, who looked on at him with their undivided attention. Then, a smile appeared as he announced, "You can never have too many friends!" Ranma let out a breath of relief she had been unconsciously holding. Aang then let out a light laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Guess now the girls outnumber us, huh, Sokka?"

No one saw the flash of nervousness that flew across the two eldest girls' faces.

--

End of Chapter 7

--

_**Author's Notes**_

Wow... I finally did it. I broke my goal of writing a chapter of 10,000 words... and blew past it by a full 2000 extra! Yeah, go me! Whew, feels like I've run a marathon over the past three days... – Kon looks to the side at the mound of rewrites and sighs-

Anyways, I'm really writing this to hopefully answer some questions before they're asked and answer a few things from the reviews.

I know there's going to be some questions as to why Ranma and Ryoga turned into killing machines in the battle by the gate... along with why they were so strong. Well, they lost themselves to the rage, for different reasons but that doesn't matter. Once lost in it, they honed it down to a razor's edge, like a martial artist or any good fighter does to an emotion. At that point, they didn't think, they just acted.

So... are their Ki attacks going to be that strong in the future? Maybe... but like little old grannies lifting cars with their bare hands, what happened with their Ki attacks are the same thing. Plus... I used a little artistic license in the scene. I think it works fine. –breaks into a smile-

Why didn't I write out Iroh and Zuko's scene... well, one reason is I couldn't. I tried many... many times and each one looked and felt like crap. The other reason is... a secret. So, I decided to just have them talk about it after the fact. Take your own guess at what happened, but no, they didn't fight. –grin-

So... am I going to saddle up the two Nerima boys with girls... Depends on how sadistic I am with regards to Ranma... probably gonna have to say, yeah. –evil smile while tapping fingers together- Still, I have a lot of thinking to do, and while you guys are welcome to send your suggestions, –laughs at the Azula one- I'll be pairing them up... if that even happens. Got to remember that the only unclaimed girls are Ty Lee and Azula, who are the enemy in the series, and Toph... No, just no... –Wry grin while rolling eyes-

Saddle them up with boys... I don't do Yaoi. Ranma and Ryoga are guys, even if their bodies aren't at times, so... No. If anything, it would be something similar to Kuno... used for laughs or because Ranma is the universes 'chew toy'. –bursts out laughing-

Sets see... –Starts counting off on fingers- I think I've got it all... –takes another look at the reviews- Hmm...Ranma n' Ryoga Bending... –Looks for something else- Ah! Ok, Hikaru was from the Northern Water tribe. She's one of the few that decided to leave on wanderlust. Just a minor character, but figured I'd put it out there.

Oh, as for the timeframe in the Avatar series... that should be pretty obvious now.

As always, I hope you guys like my story. I know I'm having fun writing it. –wide grin-


	7. Meet the Gaang

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

"Alright", the distinctly feminine voice whispered out, breaking the uneasy silence, "we're here."

Turning her head about, she saw the flicker of red from the corner of her eye, but ignored it in favor of viewing the three she had been guiding. In the darkness of the night, their colors were muted along with the less prominent features of their persons, but even so, they were easily told apart by the martial artist.

"Sooo…", the taller male drew out, stretching the monosyllabic word for effect, "Where exactly is here?"

From the looks on his companions' faces, Katara and Aang were wondering just as much on that question as Sokka. All three scanned the almost mundane alley in confusion. "I thought you were leading us to King Bumi…", the short Avatar asked, causing the redhead to look at him over Sokka's question.

Scratching the base of her ponytail, Ranma let out a sheepish face that matched the tone of her voice perfectly, "Well… Neither Ryoga or I know where King Bumi is…" Even while saying that, she quickly continued to steamroll over Sokka's coming interrogation, "We know someone who does, though, which is why I brought you here."

Quickly taking advantage of her last sentence, Sokka broke in to ask again, "Fine… Where exactly is here? I mean, we're standing in an alley…" With a dramatic wave behind the redhead he finished, "It even dead ends!"

"If you'd stay calm for a second, you'll find out", another female voice explained in irritation, stepping from behind Sokka. A silent thanks ran through her mind as he only offered a grumble under his breath instead of another outburst as she made her way behind Ranma. With three sets of eyes watching her, the green haired teen pulled five marbles from her pockets and opened an unobvious hatch on a pipe that ran into the ground along the alley. Without dramatic flare, she dropped them into the pipe, which they could faintly hear the small spheres rattling along until it faded out.

After a few silent seconds, in which she replaced the cover and stepped back, the Watertribe warrior crossed his arms over his chest. "Ok… So what's that suppo-whoa!", the words forced out of his mind and mouth as what was the end of the alleyway fell downward with a slight rumble.

"Let's go", the redhead urgently commanded as she briskly walked in and down, showing the sloped walk to the others by example. One by one, the trio following the two elder females broke themselves out of their stunned expressions and followed Ranma and Ryoga. Once they started down the slope, all five easily saw the earthbender who had performed the feat, though only the elder teenagers expected him to be there.

"You two are back early…", the green clad male noted dryly as he slammed the entrance closed, which slightly started Sokka. His wry grin showed his notice, even though Sokka quickly recovered as the man continued, "I see you brought friends…"

"I know, I know", Ranma replied with a dismissing wave of her hand as she walked down the gem lit tunnel. "He's going to be pissed… I could care less." Turning halfway around and pointing towards Aang, she continued, "He needs to see him and I'm taking him there."

The earthbender just shrugged his shoulders with a soft snort of dismissal, "Whatever. It's your butt he's going to chew, not mine."

"Yeah, yeah…", the redhead replied back at seeing the grin on the man's face. "They are still in the same place, right?" Seeing the nonverbal message he was giving, she just shook her head, "Thanks…"

The trip through the tunnel was short and quick, with both teenage martial artists knowing their way around. With them leading, the five youths made good time and it wasn't long before they stepped through the carved entrance to a well lit room. From what they saw after a split second inspection, people where gathered around a scale model of Omashu that sat on a table, alongside what seemed to be a top down view map.

The moment they stepped into the room though, a hush flew over what was a once normal level of conversation. All eyes looked up at the entering group, a few whisperings rising in the relative silence. After a few seconds the silence was truly broken with a deep chuckle from one of the men at the table. "Well, well. If it isn't our little Ms Airbender", he greeted with a grin in his eyes from the reaction he would get. "Looks like you kept her out of trouble, Ryoko."

Ryoga just gave a small knowing smile and wave at the bearded man as she knew what to expect as much as he did. Ranma didn't disappoint, as she exclaimed, "Quit calling me that, Old man!" Ryoga just snickered, but quickly killed it when she heard Aang, Sokka and Katara muttering combinations of 'Airbender' and 'Ryoko' in confused tones.

Before any of the trio could speak up though, the redhead had put her hands on her hips and continued, "How many times do I have to tell you before you stop, Batoo? I'm not an Airbender!" Throwing a finger over to the yellow and orange clad boy while never unlocking with the man's brown eyes, she smirked, "Now he, on the other hand, _is_, Batoo!"

Seeing the wide eyed looks that flashed on everyone's face, and hearing the sharp intake of air from beside her, Ryoga moved up to her rival and smacked the back of her head. "Nice job there, Saotome", she dryly chastised the redhead, ignoring the glare she received. "Batoo, Commander… this is Aang, Katara and Sokka", she continued, indicating each with a wave of her hand.

Another bearded man, who wore wide brimmed headgear, stepped away from the table to move towards the youths. "Hmm…", he mused to himself as he stroked his beard before his eyes flashed wide for a second in realization, "You're the Avatar, aren't you?" Immediately after asking he nodded his head at his own question, "You were here before talking to King Bumi."

Aang nodded his own head in response, stepping forward a few steps while looking up at the taller male, "Yes, sir. That's why I'm here. I need someone to teach me Earthbending." Then, lowering his eyes a bit, the bald boy spoke with a somber tone, "I didn't expect to find this when I came back though…"

"None of us expected this, Avatar", the man replied while shaking his head. "Well, it's good that you're here though, Avatar. I am Commander Xian Go and lead the resistance against the Fire Nation occupation. With your help, we'll be able to push them out of the city and claim it back!"

"Hold on", a female voice broke in, as Katara moved up to put a hand on Aang's shoulder, "Aang might be the Avatar, but you are a being unrealistic thinking that he can free a city by himself!"

"Katara's right…", Aang spoke in a saddened voice, not because of what his friend had said, but because she was right. He couldn't help these people… and that's what the Avatar was supposed to do… right? "I wish I was more powerful and could help."

Xian Go looked down at the shorter male before him for a bit, but soon closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he seemed in thought for a few moments. "Sorry, Avatar Aang… I just can't leave things as they are", he explained as he lowered his hand and opened his eyes. "During the attack, I asked King Bumi what his plans were for the battle. His answer…" His hands clenched into tight fists as he recalled the moment, "His answer was 'Do nothing'!"

The older man took a few breaths to control himself before he continued, "I watched as my home was overran… my people injured or killed… I won't accept, 'Do nothing'!" His visage took one of determination, then, "That's why I ask for your help, Avatar."

"What you're asking is suicide", Sokka challenged back, his tone heated as he looked at a few of the papers on the table. "Even with Aang and King Bumi, it'd take twice as many people as you have to take back Omashu…" Saying that, the blue clad boy just shook his head, "Even then, it wouldn't be pretty…"

"That's why we've been raiding and sabotaging their plans and factories when we can", the middle aged commander replied. "I'm not suicidal, but I'd gladly give my life if it meant that we would be free!" He reinforced this by clenching his fist before him and setting a grim look on his face. "Fighting the Fire Nation is the only way to fight for freedom and I'll fight to the death!"

Ranma stood to the side, watching with crossed arms, as the heated conversation continued. Ryoga also stood impassively nearby; both knowing what drove the leader of the Resistance. Their brows rose though when they heard the Avatar's response, "What if there was another way?"

"Sounds like you have a plan…", Ryoga started to ask before being cut off. "No", the young Avatar replied in the negative, "well… sort of. What if you left the city? You would gain your freedom and live to fight another day."

"I can't… I _won't _accept running away", Xian Go growled with a shake of his head.

"Sometimes you have to run to come back stronger than before", Ranma offered up into the conversation. She sent a subtle jab into Ryoga's side as she heard a whisper of, "You know a lot about that", escape her lips. Ryoga just brushed off the strike, the grin never escaping her mouth.

"You know they're right, Commander." Heads and eyes moved to lock onto Batoo, especially his leader. Seeing the glare he was getting, the slightly younger man spoke out again, "We _are_ hurting Fire Nation plans, but we can't keep this up much longer." Shaking his head, he sighed, "They're getting used to our tactics and we're loosing too many to the increased security. This is a fight of attrition and we're on the losing side, now."

As if hearing this for the first time, Xian Go looked into the faces of his other advisors. Each and every one told him the same thing and it made him give a long deep sigh. Seeing the look of defeat and loss in his eyes, Aang tried to help him save face, "You are a great leader, Commander. Your people need your strength to guide them if they are to flee to freedom."

The man who received those words from the Avatar was no fool. He know damn well what the young boy was trying to do and deep down he appreciated it, but unlike his king, he wouldn't give up without a fight. "Alright, I'll entertain your thoughts. How exactly will we leave this city alive? The gate is guarded more to keep us in than keep others out."

With this knowledge, the tattooed youth was set back in his argument. His eyes flicked around to the faces of those who were watching the verbal sparring match. Their gazes were set on him now, making him reach out for any idea that might come to his head, but nothing was there. Finally, his shoulders drooped as he admitted, "I don't know…"

The young airbender expected the older man to come back at him, but when he looked up, he only saw a thoughtful visage on the elder man's face. A quick glance around showed that others were also deep in thought, but it still did nothing to help him drag an idea out of his own mind. Silence reined, until a shout called out, "I've got it!"

In an instant, everyone was looking at the teen in the 'warrior's knot', as he grinned like a mad man. After a few seconds, his sister huffed and demanded, "Well?" His grin would not be denied, and seemed to grow bigger as he opened his mouth, "One word: Pintapox."

No one said a word in the coming seconds, everyone dumbfounded by the teen's statement; either by confusion or because they actually knew what he was talking about. Eyes turned though as a chuckle was heard and then grew into full blown laughter. Ryoga just looked incredulously at the almost doubled over girl beside her. "What's wrong with you, Saotome?!"

Wiping her eyes, Ranma's laughter died down enough for her to reply, "It's… it's just so stupid that it might actually work!" Finally looking up into the face of her rival, she straightened fully while losing the laugh. Still keeping a good smirk on her face, she continued, "Oh, come on! You saw how that patrol reacted!"

"Yeah…", Aang's eyes lit up as he thought about it, "that's a _great_ idea, Sokka! You're a genius!"

"Would someone please explain what the hell 'pintapox is?!"

"Sure thing", Sokka responded to the Commander's exasperated demand with a smiling voice. "When we snuck into the city, we were challenged by a patrol asking why we were out after curfew. I had some marks on my face where a pintapus had been stuck…" The watertribe warrior had to stop for a second to chuckle after the fact, "Well, we played it off like it was a disease… a highly _contagious_ one!"

The smile Sokka wore was a mile wide as he saw looks of dawning comprehension in the people around him. He just waited as he saw the gears grind away in their minds. "So…", Batoo mused, "You think we can get thousands of people out of the city with a fake plague?"

"The girl is right", Xian Go whispered, almost to himself, "the situation is so stupid that it might actually work. It's almost pure genius…", he continued, starting to pace a bit as his tactical mind ran over the details that were given. After more than a few moments of this, he finally stopped and looked at his advisors again. Nodding to them, he turned back to the Avatar and his companions, "Thank you for your idea. I need to discus this further and plan this out. Please, relax and rest. Someone will notify you when we've reached a decision."

--

A minute later, the Avatar and his two companions, plus two teenage girls, were relaxing on futons in another dug out room which was surprisingly comfy. It was big enough to not crowd anyone's personal space without being too big. Even with all the relaxing that was going on, it didn't really surprise anyone when the question came out, "'Ms Airbender?'"

The redhead just let out a sigh. "Don't get any ideas. I'm not an airbender", she said in a matter of fact voice. "Before you even ask, they think I am due to a Ki attack I have."

"What do you mean", Aang continued with his questions.

"Well… You saw what Ryoga and I can do with Ki, right", Ranma counter asked, getting three nods in return. "That was emotion powered Ki, concentrated in my hand. Pure ki can be used to perform other techniques. It just happens to be, that one I use causes a tornado."

"But isn't _that_ airbending…", Sokka queried, almost to Aang as much as to Ranma.

Ranma let out another sigh as she rubbed her eyes, "Ok, let me ask you a question, Aang. How do you airbend?" After a few seconds of silence, she removed her hand and saw a look on the young boy's face that made her think she had asked him why he had to breath. "Let me reword that… What do you feel when you airbend? How do you make it happen?"

The look on his face changed with that, more into a deep thought as if wondering how he did it for the first time. Finally, he answered, "I don't know, I guess. I just need it to happen and bend it. I guess you could say, I'm one with the air around me when it happens."

The pony tailed female just nodded, "My technique requires cold and hot air currents, with my ki usually supplying the cold and my opponent the hot. I run a spiral and then execute the technique, the Hiryu Shoten Ha. That's my only 'airbending' technique." Silently, she added, 'Well, that and Kaijin Raishu Dan…'

"So… you're not an airbender…" The sorrow in Aang's voice could be tasted in the air by Ranma. She slowly shook her head, "I'm sorry… I'm not."

Sensing her friend's mood, Katara put an arm around the young airbender's shoulders, a sad look matching his. Pulling him in a little, she tried to comfort him, "I'm sorry, Aang…"

Not looking up from his feet, Aang just shook his head, "It's ok… I just thought… maybe I had found another…" Hearing this, she just held him, concern in her eyes.

It was a few minutes later before Sokka spoke up again with a long drawl, "Sooo… you think they'll go with this plan?"

"I hope so", Katara and Ranma said at the same time. The two blinked at each other before Ranma let out a grin but let it drop as she continued, "We've been helping the Resistance out since the start of this crap." Her eyes grew cloudy as thoughts wandered through her mind before she gave it a shake. "They are on the losing side and I've had to watch… I hope I can leave them on a good note of them leaving this place."

"You can say that again", Ryoga agreed in a low voice. "We've done way too many runs for medical supplies…" Her voice just died off, no one needing to hear any more.

After a time, Ranma spoke up again, "If they do go through with it, it will be the perfect time to find your king and talk to or free him."

Aang just jerked up his head towards the blue eyes, "What? I thought we were going to help them escape? I can't abandon them to a plan I pushed in the first place!"

"Aang", Sokka's voice broke in, "That's probably our best chance…" Hearing that, the Avatar brought his gaze to bear on his friend and found him chin in hand as he continued to speak, "Yeah, with all the chaos the 'plague' will cause, all the guards and patrols are going to be busy." Smashing a fist into an open palm, he exclaimed, "It's the perfect time to contact King Bumi!"

"That's good to hear", a grinning voice that obviously didn't belong to the five broke in.

Turning her gaze in the direction of the voice, Ranma was already growling under her breath. Once her sight confirmed what her ears were telling her, she let out an exasperated yell, "How the hell do you keep doing that, old man!?"

"What are you talking about", Katara asked of the redhead, not at all expecting that outburst. Looking at Aang and Sokka, neither of them did either, but for some odd reason Ryoga looked like nothing had happened out of the ordinary.

With a jerk of her arm, finger pointing like she was accusing the man of something, "Him!" She just growled again as she saw Katara blink in confusion, "Batoo's done this since day one! He just shows up in the middle of us talking like a ghost or something." Jerking her eyes to him again, she demanded again, "How the hell do you do it!?"

The only answer she got from him at first was a smirk and a deep chuckle which evolved into a full blown guffaw as he slid down the wall to the floor. Once he had calmed down enough to talk coherently, fully ignoring the deadly glare the redhead was directing at him, Batoo replied, "I have no idea, but the look on your face was priceless!"

Ryoga just shook her head as she grinned at her rival so riled up. "What do you have for us, Batoo… Every time you show up like this, you seem to have to say something we need to hear." Letting out a chuckle, she continued with a wry smile, "I swear, it's like you're like a badly used plot device out of a story or something…"

"Hey, now…", Batoo sent a warning tone over to the green haired martial artist, who just grinned back at him. "It's not _my_ fault that I know you two better than anyone else here", drawing himself up in a humorous way, before deflating with a dismissing wave of a hand, "Which doesn't mean much at all since all I know about you two is how stupidly strong you and your brothers are", he muttered, well under his breath as he relaxed from his comical stance while shaking his head slightly.

Letting out a chuckle, he glanced around the five youths with a grin, "That aside, I do have something to tell you that you'll like…

--

"You know, this has to be one of the best posts to have", a brown eyed man said with a smile as he looked out at the scene from his vantage point. "We hang out all day, enjoying the breeze and the view. The old man doesn't do anything but talk, though he's a little odd…", he finished with a wry grin.

A grumbled curse from behind was quickly followed by an annoyed, "Will you shut up, Ryuu?! I'm _trying_ to catch some 'Z's' over here!"

With a shrug, Ryuu looked back at his partner, who was sitting on a crate in the shade, the wall behind leant into for support. "Hey, it's not my fault you stayed up all night drinking." He just grinned at the hand gesture he received as his companion adjusted his hat to shade his eyes more. Chuckling, he ran a hand through his short raven hair, turning back to the scenery.

Time passed for the man without him even knowing it, so engrossed in his mind and sight. A sound behind him broke Ryuu out of his trance with a start. Looking behind him, he saw his companion laying on the ground next to the crate he once sat upon. "Hey, you ok?"

His brow furrowed after a second, because he received no answer. Moving closer, his brown eyes noticed no movement from the man on the hard stone other than easy breathing. "Alright, Hoshi. I know you're faking it, so get up."

After a moment, there was a quick scramble as Ryuu quickly moved over to his downed companion to check him over. Knowing next to nothing about medicine, he quickly shook the body, trying to wake Hoshi with his efforts. "Hey! Hoshi, this ain't funny! Wake up, man!"

He spent a few more seconds at this but jerked his head around at the sound of warning gongs from the main gates. The sight he saw behind him made him swallow as his eyes widened and his stomach twisted into a knot. The whispered words, "Avatar", barely made it past his lips as he struggled to breath, the sight of red hair bringing visions of screams and tornado's of bodies into his mind. His ears barely registered, "Not quite", as his eyes saw her had move. He never felt the chop to the neck that sent him into darkness.

As she leaned over the fallen body, she felt the rest of her group turning the corner. Ranma gave them a quick glance before returning her gaze back to her task at hand. Her hands flashed out, hitting a couple specific spots on the body, forcing a bit of her ki into it. After a second, she nodded and moved away, hearing the question, "What'd you just do?"

Looking up at the dark haired male who had it died into a warrior's knot, she simply replied, "He'll be paralyzed if he wakes up too soon." Seeing the look she got, the blue eyed fighter waved her hand dismissively, "It'll wear off after a few hours."

"Uh… okay…", Sokka replied, eyeing the girl carefully. "So, now what?"

Turning her gaze about to survey the area, Ranma shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure." Letting out an annoyed grumble, she continued, "They said he should be right _here_." She waved to the area with an arm, but everyone noticed a lack of anything.

After a bit of looking around with no reward, everyone jerked their heads when Katara spoke out. "Uh, guys. What's that?" They saw here with her face lifted skyward. Seeing this, the rest did the same, looking towards the heavens. What they saw was what looked to be something suspended in the air via a large crane.

"Of course!" Hearing that, they quickly saw Sokka break off from the group towards the side of the open area. Hearing the mixed questions behind him, he turned around after he stopped next to a box half as tall as him. "Think about it. What's the best place here to keep a master earthbender from earthbending?"

"You're telling us that is King Bumi?!", Aang exclaimed, jerking an arm upward at the hanging object.

"Exactly", the blue clad male replied with a grin on his face as he threw a lever on the box he was by. The sounds of grinding could be heard almost immediately as cables moved and gears turned. A few seconds later, Sokka spoke up smugly, "I present to you, King Bumi."

All eyes were drawn to the quickly lowering object, which all too soon was revealed to be a large metal coffin. A second later, the sound of snorting laughter edged into hearing and grew louder as the grey haired face of an old man also came into view. With a loud clunk, the one man prison jerked to a halt a meter from the ground before the gathered youths.

Breaking from his laughter, the old man looked around with amused eyes and a wide smile on his face. "Why, hello there, everyone! What brings you to Omashu?"

From near the back of the group, Ranma loudly asked, "This crazy sounding old coot is really the king of this place?"

"Ranma!" Katara replied in an admonishing tone, while Ryoga smacked the redhead up side the head.

Bumi just laughed in his snorting way as Aang grinned back and replied, "Yeah, meet Bumi, 'The Mad Genius'. Heya, Bumi! It's me, Aang."

Ranma just nodded slowly as she rubbed the spot where Ryoga had stuck her. In her head though she grumbled, 'How come all old people seem to be crazy…'

"It is great to see you Aang, but I still wonder why you're here", the captured king asked, as his face shifted from its constant grin for a change.

"Well", Aang started, rubbing the back of his neck, "I need to learn earthbending and you're the best one I know, so…"

The grey haired old man let off another one of his laughing snorts before replying, "Sorry, no can do."

Hearing that, most of the group looked dumbfounded, with Ryoga asking, "What? Why?"

With a quick glance at the green haired girl, the king laughed in mirth again, "Well, for one, I've been captured and stuck in this thing."

"Then we'll just un-capture you", Aang said, with determination.

"As touching as this is, I don't think I can allow that", a slightly amused female's voice rolled over the group, drawing their eyes immediately. To their left, they found a single teenager who wore dark maroon garb and a spiky hairpiece. Their eyes were directed towards her confident grin and smug brown eyes.

"And what do you think you can do? There's five of us and only you", Sokka asked with a guarded voice. He felt in his gut that she might have a ace or twenty up her sleeve…

Holding her arms out and shrugging like she wasn't bothered at all, she smugly asked back, "Who says I'm alone?"

Before they could react, a loud clunk was heard from their right and the imprisoned king before them shot upwards with him laughing and yelling down, "Well, so long Aang! See you again soon!"

Aang and Katara jerked their heads upwards with the ascending king, while Ranma kept her eyes on the smug female. Ryoga and Sokka, on the other hand jerked around towards the control panel to see two other girls standing there. The one in pink was smiling and waving, while the one in long dark robes stood with a neutral look on her face that bordered on bored. They also saw her hand on the control box, namely the lever which Sokka had used to lower the king before, only in the opposite position.

A tense standoff, barring the smiling relaxed girl by the control box, ensued for a few seconds before a burst of air jerked everyone's cloths around as Aang jumped up the scaffolding, ascending faster than the king and gaining ground. Seeing this, the maroon colored girl let her smug visage break into one of complete shock, but she mastered it in a split second. Without missing another beat, she called over to her companions, "Ty Lee, Mai, I'll leave them to you."

Ranma ignored the reply one of the two gave, as she narrowed her eyes at what she deemed the leader of the trio. Seeing the girl's first move, the redhead broke forward, intent on intercepting the enemy's path into the scaffolding that was built up on one side of the current battlefield. Her opponent seemed to sense what the redhead was doing and suddenly all Ranma could do was utter, "Oh shit", and lunge to the side as a large wide burst of blue flame tore through the area.

--

"Sure thing, Azula", the cheery girl called back to her leader. "This is going to be fun, Mai", she exclaimed to the dark girl beside her. Mai just responded with a quiet grin that twitched the edge of her mouth.

The staring session continued for a second until a flash of fire and a yell from behind them jerked everyone into action. Sokka reached up to the weapons strapped to his back but had to dodge as hidden weapons were flung his way from Mai. As this happened, a flash of tan and green shot forward towards Ty Lee, while whips of water crossed her path. With a grunt, Ryoga flung herself in a long jump that hurdled any of Katara's attacks, while keeping good speed towards her target.

"Prepare to die! Bakusai Tenketsu!" Yelling that out, the leaping teen felt a grin at saying those familiar words. 'It's been a bit since I last yelled that out', she mused as she landed where her target used to be and drove her finger into the wood floor. Even though Ty Lee had dodged, she and the other three combatants stalled for a split second as the explosion threw wooden shrapnel and dust into the surrounding area.

The fight resumed quickly though, with Mai flinging needles at Katara, who quickly blocked by freezing the streaming water she used as a weapon, halting the needles in its frozen grasp. Quickly converted back to water, the needles fell to the ground with a metallic ring as she flung the snake like water whip at the dark clothed weapon thrower. Mai dodged just enough to get out of the fast but easily readable attack, but soon committed to a full dodging roll as a whirling weapon arced its way toward her.

--

"Damn it", the blue eyed girl cursed under her breath as she saw her target cut a rope and ride it up towards the top of the scaffolding. Ranma jerked her head around to find another but it was too far away to be tactical. Growling, she ran into the same shaft Azula had used and started jumping upwards, trying to catch up.

She had just made it to the top to find the maroon colored girl kicking out a blast of flame towards Aang and the imprisoned Bumi. Before it could hit, though, the chain which held said pair up snapped, plummeting both males earthbound. Ranma growled as she charged the firebender once again.

Azula broke out of her glare at the fleeing Avatar and king just in time to see the redhead. With a grin, she jetted out another blue fan of flame, and like last time, she moved away from the pursuing fighter. Like last time, Ranma started to evade, but this time she was expecting the flame attack. What she wasn't expecting was to hit a weak floorboard in the structure and fall through with a startled cry as the attack flew over her as she fell to the floor below.

Coughing and pushing herself out of the small pile of boards that lay on her, Ranma narrowed her eyes and expanded her ki senses. An instant later, she jumped down a nearby transport shaft and fell towards the ground, where her companions were fighting. Sensing she freefell as far as was safe, she poured ki into her hands, trying to strengthen them for what was coming next. Then, she reached out and grabbed a hold of a rope that was strung down the shaft, screaming in pain as she felt the burning of her hands a second later.

Slamming her feet onto the ground, she ignored the fact that her hands felt like they were dipped in molten lead as she ran. Wincing with the pain, she pulled her hands together at her side, concentrating her ki between them quickly before thrusting them out before her, shouting the resounding battle cry, "Moko Takabisha!"

As the ki blast flew forward from her hands, she let out another cry, this one of pain, but the attack flew none the less. As she winced though teary eyes, she hoped she had the timing correct as her target came into view. Growling through the pain, Ranma shot forward once again, even as she saw Azula, who rode a earthen skid, and the ki attack converging. The following sight of the firebender flinging herself out of her cart just before the resulting explosion made the pain all worth it for Ranma, as she saw Azula rolling on the large channel before rolling onto her feet to slide to a stop.

Yes, the glare the redhead received was well worth it…

--

"Stand still, damn you!"

The bouncing and leaping Ty Lee just flashed her green haired attacker an incredulous look, "Oh, come on! Like I'm going to let you hit me! Look what you did over there!" With that, as she was mid leap, she pointed towards the huge whole in the wood floor Ryoga had caused not seconds before. "Besides, slugfests aren't any fun", she flashed with a smile before dropping through a hole in the wooden scaffolding the fighting floor consisted of. Ryoga just growled and scanned the area as Katara and Sokka continued to trade blows with Mai farther away.

"Aang's got Bumi", Sokka updated his sister as he caught his boomerang out of the air. Rolling to the side to avoid flying knives his sister couldn't block, he grunted as he hit the ground wrong in the roll. Picking himself up quickly, he rubbed his shoulder after he flung his ranged weapon again.

While forming another ice shield before her to take the impact of multiple needles, his sister replied quickly, "We need to get out of here too." Then, with a quick movement, she was on the offensive with her water whip once again, having worked out a slight rhythm with her brother. "This is taking too long," the brown haired girl grumbled.

Just as Mai leaned backwards, the whip flying high over her body, her eyes were forced wide in surprise once again as she was pressured into another rolling dodge. This time though, it wasn't a blue boomerang that caused it, no she had gotten used to that attack. The swarm of yellow checkered blurs was another beast all together, causing her to spend the next few seconds dodging wildly, rolling along wooden floor as these yellow things tore through it.

Taking advantage of the flow and ebb of things is the main principle of waterbending, and Katara put that thought to good use as she sought to press this new turn in her favor. Flinging out her water once again, she scored a direct hit on the prone female, flowing it over the right side of her body and then freezing it rock hard. Mai let out a surprised cry but quickly shifted to trying to chip at it with her left hand.

"We need to get out of here", Katara called over to her brother. With a quick glance, she saw him reach into his shirt, "Already on it!" A second later, he was blowing on a previously purchased 'Bison Whistle' as hard as he could. This moment of distraction turned out to be the waterbender's downfall in the coming seconds.

Ryoga, who had given up on finding the slippery energetic opponent of hers, had flung her bandana projectiles to assist the siblings. She was running towards them, but was far enough away that all she could do was watch the coming events as Ty Lee appeared out of a hole behind Katara and went to work.

Catching Katara unaware, Ty Lee struck multiple spots on the girl's arms. The speed and accuracy of the ambush was such that the blue eyed girl never knew what hit her until a blur of pink came into her vision, back flipping towards Mai. The next thing she saw and felt was her loss of connection with the water line before her as it fell towards the wood deck. Quickly going through the motions to gain control back, the waterbender panicked as it failed to obey.

"Not so tough without your bending, are you?" The panicking girl looked up at that to see the slightly grinning Mai holding her hand up with weaponry ready to fly. As she looked on in fear as the ranged fighter raised her hands, Katara could only hear her own thoughts in her head, 'Oh, no… I'm going to die…'

Just as Mai cocked her hands back to let loose her weapons, she and Ty Lee jerked their eyes to the side and quickly started to dive in different direction. Only the cry of, "Shishi Hokodan", gave them enough time to react as a blue wave of energy tore line of destruction along the wooden floor towards the pair.

--

Hopping over another flare of flame, Ranma worked her way closer to the now focused firebender. Then, without missing a step, she dashed forward, closing the gap even farther, until she had to roll to the side from another attack. Quickly getting to her feet with a grunt, the redhead leapt high into the air over a rather large bout of blue fire.

That's when she saw the grin on Azula's face as she set her stance and flung her arms out a second later. Ranma swallowed as she realized her moves were anticipated and she couldn't dodge the attack. Thinking quickly, she charged up and fired off a Moko Takabisha into the oncoming flames. As they both met, the more concentrated ki attack pierced through the flames, but before Ranma could cheer, she notice the blast was still coming.

As a last ditch effort for defense, the airborne martial artist tried to dive completely into the 'Soul of Ice' technique. Clenching her eyes closed and taking a sharp intake of breath, Ranma felt a field of cold envelope her… right before it was stripped away by the rolling flames. Grunting with the heat, she forced herself to maintain the 'Soul of Ice', but just as it hit and washed over her, the heat was gone.

The heat was quickly replaced with the feeling of cooler air flying over her skin as gravity had its way over her body. Snapping open her eyes, the redhead fully expected to see the oncoming wooden deck. Seeing the massive chuck of nothing that should have been the edge of the deck, Ranma's eyes flew wide with the realization that her fall would fling her completely off the platform. Passing over the edge of where the platform should have been, the airborne female looked down and saw a drop of hundreds of meters… with no way to stop it. Having nothing else to do while she fell, the martial artist did what any normal person would… she screamed at the top of her lungs and then the feeling of hitting something solid followed by darkness…

--

The next thing Ranma knew, she was letting out a haggard moan of protest. This was quickly followed by a writhing request, "Stop hitting me with your damn mallet…"

"Well, at least we know she's alive…"

"Yeah, but is she alight? What was that about a mallet?"

The redhead heard the questions, but hearing hurt… really hurt. Another groan was let loose, "Akane… head hurts…"

The next moment, the pain flared as someone yelled, "Leave Akane out of this, jerk!" It was quickly followed by multiple protests to leave the redhead alone and quit shaking her.

The sense of time for a certain martial artist was nonexistent. At least it was quiet now and she could sleep… yeah, sleep was good…

Finally though, she slowly opened her eyes to the darkness above her. Lazy clouds covered parts of the sky, with stars shining from the uncovered sections. From her side, she could feel the heat of a small fire and see the lights flickering in the side of her eye.

Taking a deep breath, Ranma took stock of her condition. 'Massive headache, torn left shoulder muscles, right thigh one big bruise…', she mentally noted. She winced slightly as she turned her head towards the fire, seeing four figures.

"So you're finally awake, huh?"

'Ryoga', flashed through the redhead's mind in recognition, noting the figures turning slightly to regard her. "Maybe… What happened?" Her voice was slightly ragged and raspy as she spoke.

"Oh, the usual: You screaming like a little girl and getting knocked out", a slightly amused Ryoga replied. The green haired girl kept grinning through the responding, "Bite me, Ryoga"

Even as the last bit of verbal sparring died down, a figure from the fire stood and made it's way towards the downed fighter. Kneeling down, the concerned voice of Katara spoke out, "How are you feeling, Ranma?"

"Just peachy", the response came, with a slight wince in her eyes.

"Right… Now where are you hurt?" Hearing Katara's dry response, Ranma tried to chuckle, but it came out as a hurting cough. Taking a quick breath, their blue eyes met, "Left shoulder, right thigh and my head are killing me…"

"Alright, I'll see what I can do about that", the waterbender replied with a smile as she placed a hand against Ranma's forehead. At first, it only felt like cool wetness, but slowly, the ache faded to an easily tolerable level. A sigh escaped the injured female's lips as the cool hand was removed a minute later.

"Okay, you guys better not look over here", she warned, turning her eyes back to the fire. A couple of muttered agreements resounded back a second later. Turning her gaze back down, Katara's eyes matched her apologetic voice as she said, "Sorry, but I need to take off your top and it's going to hurt some."

Hearing Ranma's grunt of acceptance, the young waterhealer moved her left arm around and worked at removing the left side of her top. Her eyes kept flashing apologetic glances as barely noticeable flashes of pain flickered on the redheads face, but finally the injured area was seen. The grimace on Katara's face was easy to see as she looked down at the giant bruised area which consisted of most of Ranma's left side of her chest. Taking a deep breath, she called some water into her hands and placed them over the damage. Like before, the pain lessened as the time passed, but some still lingered as the healer stopped.

Letting out a long breath, Katara sat back and ran a cloth over her face, wiping off streams of sweat. Seeing the elder female leaning up and putting her top back on under her own power, the waterbender spoke up, "Sorry, Ranma. That's all I can do for a while… I'm really worn out."

"Don't worry about it, Katara. It feels a lot better, thanks", the sincere reply came as she finished tying the blue top closed, while the healer went back to the fire. Then with a deep breath, the martial artist focused her chi towards the two injured areas, with most of it going down to her injured leg. 'Guess we'll find out if it works…', she mused to herself as she looked down at her leg, almost seeing the inner power gathering.

After a few minutes, though, she released the gathered chi. Breathing deeply, she wiped the sweat from her brow, 'Great… traded a pain in my thigh for another headache…' Grunting, she slowly gathered herself enough to stand and slowly walk towards the fire herself. Slowly sitting down, she quietly asked out, "Two things… Any food and what happened?"

Handing her a loaf of bread, Sokka spoke up, "Once Aang got away with King Bumi we decided to get out of there. Thanks to Ryoga, the two we were fighting got distracted enough for us to escape. Lucky for us, Appa was able to catch you while you were falling…"

"And screaming like a little girl", a certain bandana wearing female tacked on, receiving a glare from Ranma.

"Yeah… well, it made it easy to find you at least", Sokka continued, rubbing the back of his neck.

Turning her gaze back to the watertribe warrior, the redhead skewed her brow, "Wait… Who's Appa?"

A deep rumbling call from the large mound farther from the fire sounded out into the night. "Meet Appa", Aang answered with a wide smile. "He's a flying bison and my friend."

"Flying… bison?" the still healing martial artist asked, raising an eyebrow. Hearing the young Avatar's "Uh huh" and nods from the others, Ranma just shrugged her shoulders wincing a bit from the leftover pain from her left. "Whatever… Thanks for saving me back there… I'm guessing I still landed hard though…"

"Yeah, definitely not one of your most graceful landings, Saotome", Ryoga answered with a chuckle from across the small fire. "I'm happy you didn't die back there…", she admitted a second later in a less cheery tone. The group was silent for a bit after that.

"Okay, this has been bugging me. Why do you two go by so many different names?" Sokka broke the silence and changed topics, before pointing at Ryoga. "You tell us your name's Ryoga but that guy back in Omashu kept calling you Ryoko", he continued before flicking his hand towards Ranma, "and you're Ranma, but she just called you Saotome."

Tearing off a chunk of bread, Ranma calmly replied, "Saotome is my family name… my full name is Saotome Ranma. That's Hibiki Ryoga", she finished with a wave to her rival. Then, she looked down at the bread she held loaf in one, chunk in the other and sighed, "As for the rest… You have any hot water?" Seeing the confused looks on three other faces, she finish before throwing the chunk into her mouth, "It's easier to explain with hot water."

A few minutes passed, in which Ranma and Ryoga stayed silent while the prior finished the bread off. There was a pot on the small fire during that time and by the time Ranma was finished, it was letting off some steam into the night air. Nodding to herself, the redhead looked over to Ryoga and said, "Why don't you take this one for now."

"Whatever", the green haired girl replied with a shrug before picking up a bowl and scooping some of the hot liquid into it. "Alright… Aang, Katara, Sokka…", she started, making sure she had their attention, "Remember how we told you that there was one more way to prove we are from another world?" Seeing their nodding heads she continued, "Well, watch carefully."

Without further delay, she upturned the bit of hot water over her head making the shift from green hair and eyes to black and brown. There was also a slight shift in height but the way her mass warped around into a he was recognizable if you knew what to look for. Then, there was the change in voice as a deep baritone hum escaped his throat as he stretched while muttering, "Been a bit…"

"Wha… What just happened?!" Katara's eyes were as wide as the other's but somehow her voice still worked well enough to ask that out in her shock.

"Ancient Chinese curse, very tragic tale, blah blah blah", Ranma replied as she caught the bowl Ryoga tossed at her.

"Damn it, Saotome. Shut up unless you're going to tell the full thing", the bandana clad male growled out. Ignoring the offhanded reply, he gestured towards her, "You guys might want to watch this, it's more… noticeable." What followed was another dump of water, coupled with a more dramatic change from female to male.

Expecting the coming questions of how exactly the wonder before them happened, the two Nerima males broke into a quick tale about Jusenkyo, along with a side note of the spell mishap which altered his own to match Ranma's.

"So… you change into a girl with cold water and guy with hot… So which one are you then?"

"A month ago, I'd tell you I'm a guy, easy…", the ponytailed martial artist replied with a frown. "Since coming here, though, the curse is acting weird", he continued with a snort.

Ryoga nodded solemnly, "We're still trying to figure it out, but something's definitely off…" Trailing off, he raised an eyebrow while looking around at the three non-cursed youths, "You know, you're taking this a lot better than I expected…"

"Well, you know…", Sokka started to reply while placing a hand on Aang's shoulder, "after waking up the hundred year old Avatar from a block of ice at the south pole, riding a huge flying Bison and going on a quest to save the world…"

The group chuckled as Sokka trailed off. A chuckle turned into a yawn for a couple and it was decided that the conversation could pick up in the morning, when everyone was fully awake. With that, the five youths rolled out sleeping bags or mats and bedded down for the night. After a few minutes, they were all in the land of sleep.

--

"So, you guys were actually ran out of town?"

"If you consider being chased by an angry mob with weapons, yeah, I guess you could say we were ran out", a damp martial artist replied in a dry tone as she warmed herself by the recently started fire. "So now you know why we tried to hide the curse in Omashu."

"Makes sense", Sokka agreed, pinching his chin and nodding. "in a weird sort of way." Training his eyes back on the green hair, he continued, "What's with the hair though? You guys both have black hair while male but green and red…"

Ryoga just shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just happy to have this curse than the other one."

"What would that be", the non-cursed female asked out, interested in learning about their new companions.

"Uh…", Ryoga stalled before a certain redhead broke in. "Come on, P-chan, why don't you tell them", she asked with a smirk.

Growling at Ranma, the fanged teen heard the questioning of the nickname from the Avatar. Snorting and shooting a glare over at her rival, she growled out, "I turned into a piglet, ok… At least with this curse I have hands and can talk! You don't know what it feels like to be almost turned into pork chops!" The last bit was directed with a glare at Ranma.

"Okay, Okay… sorry, Ryoga… sheesh", she replied while scratching the base of her red ponytail.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the campfire before Sokka let out a cough, "Uh… so… Hey! Explain how you did that blue light thing in the fight!"

"The Shishi Hokodan", she asked, receiving a nod, "I just take my ki, add depression and fire it out like this." As she finished, she stood, turned towards the lake and yelled out the technique. As she flung her arms forward, a blue wave of ki shot over the lake, rippling the water, fading out halfway across the lake.

After the moment of awe washed over the group, Katara spoke up, "Depression? Why do you need that?"

"The simple answer is, it makes it easier. Ki is usually used in special techniques like the Bakusai Tenketsu or my Hiryu Shoten Ha, but those don't involve pure ki like the Shishi Hokodan does", the redhead explained, "Even my Moko Takabisa uses confidence to help power it."

"What happens if you don't use an emotion?"

Both martial artists looked at each other and blinked before looking to the youngest of the group, who had asked the simple question. "I… I don't know", came the reply from the redhead. "It's just the way we learned…"

Looking back to Ryoga, the redhead saw her rival deep in thought for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders. Turning back towards the lake, she set up her stance once again, but this time held it for a while. After a few deep breaths, she cried out her signature attack while throwing her arms forward like before. Unlike before, however, instead of a blue wave of depression empowered ki, both martial artists felt and saw a stream of pure white ki exit the fanged fighter's hands. This stream shot across the lake, blowing past the point where the prior attack had faded out, to slam into the other side of the valley.

"Holy shit…", Ranma exclaimed under her breath as Ryoga numbly nodded. A second later, the green haired female promptly collapsed where she stood. Katara and Ranma scrambled over to the heap on the ground, rolling the unconscious girl onto her back and examining her.

"Ki exhaustion…", the martial artist stated a few seconds later, after running her hands over her friend. "She'll be out of it for a while, but she'll be fine."

With knowing that Ryoga would be fine, Ranma sat back down by the fire, chin in hand while deep in thought. 'So… Ryoga's attack became more… powerful? No… Well, maybe. Definitely more focused after removing the emotion charge. I wonder why she's drained of Ki though? Something I've got to look into… Wonder how my own attack would change…', she pondered while staring into the fire.

"Hey, Ranma", a voice called out, breaking her from her thoughts. "Yeah, what's up?" she answered back, dropping her hand and looking over at the older of the current males.

"Sorry about all the questions", he started off, receiving a dismissing wave from the redhead, "But I've been wondering, why do you two keep referring to each other with 'She' and 'Her'? I thought you said you both were… well, guys."

He was slightly amused to see the sight of the redhead open her mouth in response, hang there for a second and then she closed it, looking down into the fire once more. After a few moments of thought, she finally replied, "You know… I don't know why."

There was a slight break before Katara spoke up, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when we first met you and Ryoga… Well, I thought you both were really girls." She grinned slightly, "A bit tomboyish, but still two girls." Seeing the look on Ranma's face as she looked into the fire, she lightly finished with a, "Sorry…"

A few seconds passed before Ranma responded, "No… It's ok…" Letting out a sigh, she looked to the brown haired girl, "That's part of what's got me wondering. Part of what's going crazy with the curses." She let out a wry grin while tapping her temple, "You see, before, I might have been a girl in body, but I was always a guy up here." The edge of her lips turned downward, "Now…"

"Does it matter?"

Looking over at Aang, the redhead let out a quick, "Huh?" The face she looked into held no humor or malice, just a pure questioning look, like the voice that repeated, "Does it matter?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, does it matter? Boy or girl… are you still _you_?"

--

"What's Saotome up to?"

"She's meditating. I said something to her and afterwards…", Aang replied in a low tone.

Giving a puzzled look at the young boy, Ryoga wondered, "What exactly did you say?"

A few seconds passed as he wondered if he should say it again, considering that the girl before him was in the same situation. Finally, taking a breath, he relented, "I asked her if it really mattered whether she was a boy or girl as long as she was still her on the inside."

"Huh", she grunted in reply, but didn't say anything else. Shaking her head, she looked out at the lake and changed the subject, "Whatever. So I'm guessing I passed out from Ki exhaustion."

"That's what Ranma said", Katara agreed. Anticipating the next question, she continued, "You've been out for about half the day."

Hearing that, Ryoga looked up into the sky at the sun. Nodding to herself more than Katara's statement, she stood up slowly and asked, "Can you gather fish with waterbending?" Seeing the nod, she grinned, "Great. Problem with Ki exhaustion is being really hungry afterwards."

A quick smile and an understanding nod, the waterbender headed over to the lake with the Avatar following in conversation. Watching them leave, Ryoga moved over to another area and sat down and settled down into a comfortable position. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. Just as she felt her consciousness drawing inward it was ripped back as she heard Sokka's voice, "How does it feel?"

Opening an eye, she quirked an eyebrow, "How does what feel?"

"You know", he tried to get out, "how does it feel to be able to throw around attacks like you did earlier? Does it feel like bending?"

Hearing that, the bandana clad female opened both eyes to look on at the younger male. "I don't know how bending feels… Using ki though… It's…" Rubbing the back of her head, she mentally grasped for the right words. "I can't really explain it… sorry."

The male looked dejected at hearing that, but asked another question, "Can anyone learn how to do that?"

"Yeah… I guess", the girl replied with a shrug. Seeing the look in the blue eyes, a grim grin quirked onto her lips, "It's a lot of hard work, though."

He almost jerked forward into her face, loudly asking, "How much?"

Blinking, Ryoga replied, "Err… Pretty much my whole life and I only learned the Shishi Hokudan around six months ago." Saying that, a memory flashed forward which caused her to laugh. Seeing the confused look on Sokka's face, she waved a hand, "It's nothing. Just thinking about how why I learned it."

"Oh come on, you can't leave me hanging like that", he complained, "Why'd you learn it?"

Grinning, she stared into those blue eyes, "I learned it to defeat Ranma. The funny thing is, if I hadn't learned it, Ranma wouldn't have learned her own attack."

"Yeah, and I'm thankful you did", a familiar voice caused Ryoga to look to her side. "I needed it in later fights, so you helped me out a lot."

"Glad to be of service…", she wryly told the redhead gaining a grin out of her.

"Yeah and Shampoo loves Mousse", Ranma replied as she sat down with the other two non-benders. "So, what happened back there?"

"Don't know for sure", Ryoga replied while scratching at her temple. Sokka silently looked between the two as she continued, "Felt like everything was normal at the start but a little harder to push out."

"Probably cause you didn't use the emotion part…", the redhead mused, to which Ryoga nodded in agreement.

"Then, once I let it loose, it felt like… I don't know… Like it was being sucked out of me instead of pushed."

Hearing that, Ranma just put a hand to her chin and let out a low "Hmm". Moments of silence reigned until she finally stood and said, "Looks like I'll have to try it to figure it out."

As she made her way towards the shoreline, she saw Aang and Katara walking back with a gathering of fish. Smiling as she passed them, she mused about how lunch was going to be good. Then, the redhead's smile turned to a cocky grin as she thought about the task before her.

Coming to a stop, she easily charged up and fired off her standard Moko Takabisha, seeing it travel roughly the same distance of Ryoga's standard Ki attack. Nodding to herself, Ranma took a couple deep breaths and tried to push her confidence out of the standard attack. Seconds passed before she finally got back into the attack stance and charged the Ki into her hands. Preparing for the drain Ryoga talked about, she thrust her hands forward, yelling out the attack.

The drain never occurred. Well, nothing more than more Ki required to produce the attack. The major problem was the fact that the glowing ball of pure Ki just hung in the air before her an arms length away. Stunned, she just stood there wondering what the hell just happened… then it clicked in her mind and she whispered, "Crap…"

From farther away, Ryoga and Sokka watched intently over the experiment. They watched as the first one was fired off as normal and the calming silence during her preparation. Ryoga's eyebrows furrowed as the second attack. "It feels wrong…", she muttered under her breath as the ball hung in the air. Then, just at the same time Ranma swore, Ryoga saw the redhead jerk to the side and sprint away from the sphere.

"Get down!"

She barely got out the shout before an explosion rocked the area, knocking everyone off their feet. Even as the shards of debris fell around about her, the green haired fighter jumped to her feet to view the damage. What she saw left her in awe as she saw her rival on her knees shaking her head with a hand against it, as if trying to get her brain knocked back into place. Behind the redhead, there was a new pool of water, where the lake filled into the newly formed crater.

Before she knew it, she was standing next to Ranma, helping the fighter to her feet. "What the hell was that?"

"A challenge…"

--

"So, other than a new way of almost blowing yourself up, what did you find out?"

A laugh escaped Ranma's mouth as he looked over at his friend and fellow Ki user. "Well, there was no drain, that's for sure."

Letting out a grin, Ryoga replied, "Really? Wouldn't have known, with you still standing and all." His brown eyes took a more serious turn a second later, "What really happened, Saotome?"

Swallowing another bite of fish, the long haired fighter took a second to think. "It felt like a normal Moko Takabisha, but it took twice the ki to use. Then… it just hung there in the air."

"Yeah, I saw that…", Ryoga agreed, "Why'd it happen though?"

"I'll have to think about it, but my first guess is it's because I didn't use any confidence."

"I thought that was the whole point though, sort of like with me and not using depression…", the tan clothed male replied back.

"So, you don't use depression and get drained, you don't use confidence and your attack hangs…", Sokka reiterated while putting a hand to his chin.

"What's the reason to use emotions like that in an attack?"

Both Ki users looked over at the yellow and orange clad boy who asked the question. "Well, whatever emotion you use determines how powerful your attack is going to be and how it…" There, Ranma looked over to Ryoga, "It changes your attack."

"What? What are you talking about?" Katara asked in confusion.

Letting out a groan, Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, "Emotions have different… values… It's like saying fire is hot and water is cool. If you hold a sword in fire it gets hot, for example." Dropping his hand he continued, "Ki attacks work the same way. Emotions are the fire or water."

Hearing the silence while he took a breath, he continued, sating their curiosity and talking his thoughts out, "Since I'm more in tune with it, I can tell you that confidence is a light emotion. Depression is a heavy emotion. Well, that's the basic gist of the two. There's more to them than just that, but those are harder to explain."

"So, normally, you add those to your attacks, right?" Seeing a quick nod, Sokka continued, "Well, if you remove them, shouldn't you expect the opposite?"

Ryoga and Ranma blinked at the obvious statement, "Yeah, but I've never had any experience with pure ki blasts… have you Ranma?"

"I've seen Happosai and Cologne use a couple different ones but no pure attacks… I think… Hinako-san uses one for sure, but she uses a weird drain and return attack that we can't use." Shaking his head he continued, "She also needs to use coins to perform them and if I remember right, even that is affected by the emotions of the people she drains."

"So you're trying out something completely new, then", Katara asked from across the fire.

"Pretty much", Ryoga responded. "Anyways, I'm still drained from earlier, so I can't even try anything out." Turning to his rival he grinned, "You still have Ki, but until you can figure out a way to get it to move, you can't do anything with it."

"Yeah…", Ranma agreed, scratching the back of his neck. "Guess I'll try and think of something and try again tomorrow."

With that, they broke camp and took to the air once more on Appa's back. This time, Ranma was awake to enjoy the flight while he and Ryoga continued their talks and musings on their combined revelations.

--

End of Chapter 8

--

_**Author's Notes**_

Alright, lets get to a little Q/A here from the reviews:

How come I don't expand on the information about the Avatar world in comparison to Ranma and Ryoga? Well, in the Avatar world, R&R (Ranma & Ryoga) are the weird ones, barring the fact that they are weird in their own world too. -Grin- If you would like more info on the Avatar world, I would suggest going to a Wiki or watching the series, which is pretty good IMO. I'm only going to explain out stuff as R&R ask questions or find out themselves, though some things will be taken for granted as learned 'off screen/panel'.

Jess D – That's a good theory you have there. Maybe it will turn out that way, maybe not, but I really appreciate you spending the time to write that long review out. –smile- As for the 'Dragon's Whisker' and Ranma's hair, it was resolved in season 5 of the anime and was never in the manga IIRC. You can assume that since Ranma's hair isn't falling out and he's not scrambling around for the whisker, this is after that event. –grin-

As for your third question… We'll find out eventually… maybe… -grin-

Well, keep those questions coming, and I'll keep avoiding the ones I don't want to answer. –wide grin-


	8. Secrets of the Swamp

**Chaos Bender**

A Ranma ½ and Avatar: The Last Air Bender Crossover

Written by: Konsaki

A contented sigh filled the air as the cool feeling of the grass beneath the lone teen seeped through his clothing as he lay back looking at the vast blue sky. The airborne breath was quickly blown away by the slight breeze, causing his black bangs to flicker into his sight even as he stared out into the blue expanse above. His lips were tweaked up into a peaceful grin as the white clouds drifted along the horizon, floating a lazy dance in the heavens as he watched from below on the green grass of the earth. 'This is nice...'

With that in mind, he lay there on the plains with a grin as the world did its thing around him. Every once in a while, he would pull a hand from behind his head and scratch at his nose where the breeze tickled it but, other than that, he found himself wanting nothing but just to lay there for the rest of the day. It was this way only until the sounds of someone nearing drew his attention. Just as he turned his head to the side to view the approach, a woman's voice spoke into the air, "Hello, Ryoga."

As his brown eyes fell on the dark haired girl his lips quirked from a grin to a true smile. She wore a friendly smile just the same as she ran a hand along her head, tucking some of her hair behind an ear. The breeze playing through it; flicking it back loose after a moment, while making her yellow sun dress flutter around her knees at the same time. "Hello, Akane", he replied, a tone just as friendly as the one he received a moment before.

"Mind if I sit down?"

The question... no, the fact that she even felt the need to ask it seemed absurd to his ears. "No, not at all..."

Nodding, she took a spot to his side, close enough that one could see they knew each other but not so much to make one think they were a couple. As she smoothed her skirt as she sat, she looked up at the sky above them, much like Ryoga himself was doing before she intruded. "It's a nice day out, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah it is", he replied back as he turned his sight skyward once more and resumed his cloud watching. The silence that fell between them was comfortable, letting the pair of them enjoy the day for the serene event that it was. Neither wished to break it; treating it like one would a fine crafted crystal figurine...

The feeling of the scene changed instantly, sky shifting to tones of red and orange while the lush green grass turned brown and brittle, as third voice broke into the air, "Ryoga..."

--

"What's on your mind?"

It took a moment to filter into the boy's mind, though the thoughts and musings processing through it like a chaotic marching symphony in a typhoon. When the turmoil finally broke with the interruption, the long haired teen twisted his body, turning his head from the perch it held on his hand which connected to the railing via his elbow. His sight panned around the blue sky, white clouds blocking most of the sight below making it a sea of white interrupted with patches of green, to fall upon the originator of the words. "Huh", the intelligent reply broke out; his mind failing to fully recognize exactly what words were truly said a moment prior.

Sokka just snorted in slight amusement as a slight grin appeared on his face. "Ranma, you ok, man? You looked out of it", he replied back to the other male. "I was wondering what you were thinkin' about", he continued a second later, pulling the attention of his sister who sat next to him.

A low grunt was all Ranma replied back with for a second, flicking his eyes back out to view the horizon which reached almost forever. A second later, he finally spoke up in a tone which bordered on wistful and frustrated at the same time, "I'm just thinking about home..."

A few seconds passed after the siblings heard the one line response. During that, they saw the older martial artist's eyes glaze over as he stared off into nothing, his mouth dancing between a twitch of a grin and the same in the form of a scowl. It settled down after a bit into a neutral thinking visage, which is when Sokka's sister asked, "What's your home like, Ranma?"

Taking a breath, the blue clad fighter turned his body fully towards the younger siblings, repositioning himself so his back was against the railings of the platform they sat upon. The slight swaying and vertical rhythm bothered him none as he did so, almost instantly getting used to the feeling of true flight not long after Appa had taken off hours ago. "You really want to know?", he started, taking a glance between Katara and her brother. At seeing their slight nods, he continued with sigh, "It's pure chaos, plain and simple."

"Um... what do you mean", Katara asked in response, her uneasiness showing slightly in her voice.

Ranma let out a chuckle, which held little mirth, at hearing her question. "It's kinda a long story and sorta hard to explain", he said, looking into her blue eyes.

Her brother drew his gaze a moment later when he said, "Well, we're not doing anything right now, right?"

Ranma didn't know exactly why he said his next question, but in retrospect, he decided it was to give the pair one last chance out of this conversation. "Are you sure you want to hear about the crazy world that's my life?"

Sokka and Katara looked from the only other blue clad individual on the flying mammal to each other. In that moment that they glanced at each other, it seemed like a conversation took place, which caused him to sigh though his nose as Ranma saw Sokka turn back and reply, "Sure... I mean, how bad can it be?"

The look he gave the younger male would have made Nabiki proud as he deadpanned, "I have a curse that changes me into a girl with just a splash of cold water... and that's just scratching the surface..."

"Come on, Ranma", Katara replied, her voice betraying an unsure voice, "It can't be that bad..." Seeing the look directed at her now, she continued in a lower voice, "Can it?"

Seeing the look on Katara's face, Ranma took a deep breath. Letting it out slowly, he relaxed his shoulders, only then knowing how tense they were in the first place. The siblings saw him lean against the railing once more and sit there a moment, staring off into the blue above them. When he finally spoke up again, his eyes never left the heavens, "I guess if I do start, I'd have to talk about the fiancées..."

"Fiancées? As in more than one", Katara's disbelieving voice broke in.

A chuckle escaped the long haired fighter, this time containing more mirth than the last, "Try three..." Ranma's voice trailed off quickly as his face turned contemplative and a frown formed, "At least, those are the main ones. I still haven't figured out how many others there are... I doubt I'll ever, really..."

His words had barely drifted away, though the winds caused by Appa's flight, when the girl leaned forwards and begged to know, "How the hell did _that_ happen?! _Three_ fiancées!?"

"Yeah, three", Ranma reiterated and affirmed with a nod; bringing his eyes down to look at Katara. The girl saw them harden as he spoke the next words, "As for how... I have my bastard of a father to thank for that mess..." He let out a growl and muttered something that neither sibling could hear clearly before continuing a moment later, "You're probably wondering why or how my pop could do something as stupid as engaging me to three... an unknown amount of girls... and a couple guys too..." Sokka could swear Ranma muttered, "Fucking panda", under his breath before continuing his explanation like the pause didn't happen, "Short answer is my pop is a greedy idiot of monumental proportion. For example, he once sold me off for a bowl of rice, a fish and two pickles."

"You're kidding", came the twin responses, though Sokka went on saying, "You have to be making this up."

"I wish I was...", Ranma replied with a wistfulness in his voice that rang the words as true to the waterbender and her brother. "Don't get me wrong", he said, talking with a hand a bit, "Pop's a good fighter, but outside of that, he's not worth the air he breaths most of the time." With that, Ranma shook his head violently, trying to shake himself out of the negative funk he worked himself into. Taking a deep breath, he tried to find something else to talk about. While casting about with his eyes, he finally found something, causing his brow to crease, "Uh... why are we going down?"

"Wha... What are you talking about", Katara questioned back, her mind not comprehending the sudden jerk in the conversation topic. Her brother was somehow quicker on the uptake, though, as he glanced around and noticed Ranma was right. It was only a moment later that Sokka was standing and shouting up at the head of the large mammal, "Aang, why are we going down?"

When the young Avatar failed to respond, Sokka shouted again, this time eliciting a shudder from the youth, "Huh? What?"

"We're going down, what's up with that? There's just forest and swamp below us", Ranma called forward, looking towards the wash of green below them as they continued their decent.

Aang just shook his head slightly while placing a hand to the side of it, "I don't know... I feel something... calling me..."

Raising an eyebrow, Ranma glanced forward at the back of the yellow clad youth's bald head before returning his gaze downward. On impulse, the martial artist started scanning the treetops for anything which might indicate a village or hut or anything. This continued while the two siblings and the avatar conversed in the background, his mind drowning out their voices to unintelligible background noise. All at once though, his concentration snapped and rebounded into a combat mode as he jerked his vision to the rear of the flying bison. "Uh... guys..."

The blue eyed martial artist knew he had gathered the other's attention when pure silence fell over the area. Silence that was broken only by the growing sounds of a roaring cyclone of dirt and gale force winds gaining on the flying bison and its crew.

"Quick, get us out of here", Sokka yelled even as Aang yanked on the reins attached to Appa's horns. The entire platform lurched and tilted to the side a moment later, causing Sokka and Katara to grip the railing nearby. Appa righted himself quickly after adjusting to his new heading, which should have pulled the team out of the path of destruction.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me...", Ranma said under his breath as all four of their faces fell when they noticed the twister seemingly follow the flying bison as if it were playing a perverse game of tag. Another jerk of the reins and another new heading, none of them missed the yell of, "Gods damnit", coming from the ponytailed fighter.

The next thing the original trio knew, their attention was split between the nearing threat to their health, and the activities of their newest companions. Mainly, the fact that Ryoga was still asleep, a thing that caused Sokka to raise an eyebrow; followed by the means of which Ranma woke his sleeping friend... that of a well placed kick driven into the bandana clad fighter's side while yelling, "Ryoga, wake up!"

Instantly, the fighter, who was sleeping through all the commotion, jerked his body around and performed a leg sweep and followed through with an arcing kick when Ranma hopped over the sweep. Ranma grimaced as he blocked and absorbed the roundhouse, having no room to dodge on the small moving platform. While this was happening, the previously sleeping warrior was yelling, "Ranma!? What the hell!?"

Ryoga got no farther than that as his words were followed by a quick exclamation of surprise when Ranma did something unexpected; reaching down and forcibly hauling Ryoga to his feet to stand face to face. "Not now, Hibiki", the blue eyed one warned as he thrust his free arm towards the aft of the platform. The fanged martial artist blinked twice at hearing Ranma use his family name, knowing something was up, and looked towards the direction the arm was pointing. Once he saw the swirling vertical tube of carnage closing in, Ryoga's face fell as he muttered one word:

"Shit..."

As if the roaring winds were waiting for that one word as a final 'go/no go' signal, Appa and the crew riding on it were enveloped by the tornado. Four humans looked in awe as the smallest of the five jumped from the head of the beast to the middle of the platform at the last moment and put up a valiant effort to forestall the inevitable; throwing up a sphere of counter flowing winds as a form of bubble shielding. One cannot stop the inevitable, no matter how much one tries though, and after a few seconds the shield fell...

--

"Uhng... Stupid tomboy and her mallet...", Ranma reactively muttered as she placed a hand to her throbbing head. She winced as a wave of dizziness washed over her as she sat up and opened her eyes fully.

There were two reasons for her wincing: first off was the fact that her brain felt like two jackhammers were fighting a match of 'Martial Arts Tap-dancing' in her skull; the other was the fact that when she opened her eyes, Ranma saw the gouge in the ground that led from the waterline nearby to where she currently lay. Combining those two facts, she realized just how much of an unhappy landing she had after the tornado thrown her from the flying bison.

'Thrown from Appa', she yelled in her mind and jerked her head around to quickly take in her surroundings. That action resulted in another loud groan and the other hand coming to the other side of her head, trying to keep it from spinning off her neck... or so it felt like. "Uhng... note to self: don't do that...", Ranma groaned out as the feeling slowly ebbed away.

After a few minutes of resting where she sat, the redhead felt the throbbing die away enough for her to stand up and slowly look around at her surroundings. What she saw was mainly an overall darkness caused by the thick foliage provided by the abundance of trees which grew in the swamp. Bands of light broke through in the few areas between branches, providing enough light to see by, but not enough to allow clear sight past a certain distance.

A vast majority of what she could see with the available light was a slightly green tinted water; broken only by patches of hard ground, like the one she stood on, the trees which grew all around and the roots of which stuck up out of the water and earth both. The redhead could see the stillness in the waters, though the low sounds of the natural wildlife buzzed in the background causing the fighter to recognize that at least there wasn't anything majorly wrong with the swampy forest.

Though, the lack of general noise in the area made it easy for the girl to recognize the quiet splashing sounds of something moving through the waters nearby. Turning her head slowly, Ranma tried to narrow down the direction it was coming from, but the close proximity of the trees made the sounds echo off each other, distorting it and making it hard to determine. Giving a shrug, the busty martial artist leaned back against a nearby tree and let out a sigh. 'Might as well wait a bit and see what happens', she thought as she stood there, crossing her arms under her breasts.

Some time passed, with Ranma listening to the sounds of splashing water, noting that every once in a while the noise stopped for a bit before starting back up. They were also gaining in volume, so she knew it, whatever it was, was coming closer to her position. Eventually, she was able to pinpoint the direction it was coming from and turned her head in that direction while kicking off from the tree slightly, just in case she needed to move quickly. Ranma's muscles relaxed a few moments later when she finally saw a familiar girl slowly making her way through the swamp ahead of her.

"Hey, Katara", Ranma called out, giving a quick wave towards the wayward waterbender when she turned towards the noise.

The brown haired girl turned almost immediately and, upon seeing the waving redhead, made her way towards the patch of dirt, yelling, "Ranma!" After a few moments, Ranma found herself with the younger girl's arms around her while Katara said in relief, "Thank the Moon Spirit... I thought I'd never find someone..."

For a moment, Ranma just stood stalk still as the other girl hugged her, but after a moment the redhead put her own arms around the waterbender, saying, "Don't worry, you found me, right? We'll find the rest soon enough."

After a few moments, she felt Katara pull back and she released the girl and took a step back to see the waterbender wiping her eyes a bit with one hand. After a moment, Katara smiled sheepishly, "I know... I was just a little scared after finding myself alone after..."

Her lips twitched into a reassuring smile, Ranma put a hand on the brunette's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, we'll find them..." When Katara dropped the hand from her face and both sets of blue eyes met each other, Ranma's smile turned into a confident grin, "After all, you've got me with you."

The waterbender couldn't help but giggle a bit at that with a small smile showing through...

--

"So we were just flying around and then a giant tornado appears out of nowhere to smash us out of the sky..."

"Yeah, pretty much", Sokka replied as he climbed over a root that lay across his path. "Aang tried to veer out of its path but it tracked us like it was alive of something...", he continued, giving a shrug, "It doesn't make any sense..."

"You're telling me...", the jade haired teen replied as she hopped over the same root a moment later. "One moment I'm napping and the next I'm kicked awake before thrown down towards the ground at breakneck speed..." Ryoga let out a chuckle which caused Sokka to raise an eyebrow, "I swear that it's like a god out there has made a hobby of toying with me..."

Forgetting to continue his forward momentum, the swordsman watched the tall girl wade into the water in the same direction they were going. Hearing her call back, "You coming", he shook himself out of his stupor and surged forward.

"Um, yeah, sorry...", he told her, feeling a little unsure, "You... You've got to be joking about that whole 'god toying with me' thing, right?" The blue eyed boy let out a slight grin, "I mean, I've said the same thing a couple of times, but really, I highly doubt that some higher power is going to waste their time on me..."

The older teen just let out a sigh and put her face in a hand as Sokka caught up to her, "You're probably right, I'm just venting. Still, a lot of crazy stuff has happened in my life which I'm pretty sure not many other people have to deal with."

"Yeah? Like whahhh", the boy tried to ask before he fell below the water in a spray of water. A moment later he resurfaced, sputtering and wiping his eyes while Ryoga halted her movements to watch. With a last spit of swamp water, Sokka wryly asked, "Stuff like that?"

Ryoga let out a giggle at the sight, putting a hand to her mouth, before fading into silence and looking at the hand before her. A frown twitched down one side of her mouth while she furrowed her brow. Letting out a snort, she continued moving forward as the male ran a hand through his tied hair and did the same. "If I only had small things like that, I'd like to think I'd be better off", Ryoga replied after a moment.

Sensing something off in Ryoga's voice, Sokka decided to forestall any more conversation and the pair fell into silence. The only sounds were that of them wading through the swamp, water falling off them when they made it to dry land or the grunts of climbing or hopping over roots. Throughout this, Ryoga was in thought... It was like this for a good while, until Sokka finally spoke up again, asking, "What's on your mind?"

Ryoga blinked her jade colored eyes a few times before looking over at the younger fighter, "What?"

Letting out a grunt while he hopped over a waist high root, the dark haired male said, "You looked like something was troubling you." After saying that, his feet rooted to the ground as a look passed over his face, "I mean... what're you thinking about?"

"You really want to know", she asked before hopping the same root. Sokka raised an eyebrow but responded, "Sure... if you don't mind, I mean."

The green haired girl just let out a sigh and continued forward, "That right there is one of the things on my mind..."'

Keeping pace, Sokka looked a little confused, "What do you mean 'that right there'?"

"The way you're treating me! You're treating me like a girl", Ryoga explained in an annoyed tone.

"Oh...", he replied before a second looking a little more confused, "but aren't you a girl right now?

Letting out a sigh, Ryoga thought, 'Gods... is this what Saotome has to go through?' Turning her gaze towards the swordsman she replied, "Physically, right now I'm a girl... Mentally, I'm still a guy..." Silently, she added, 'At least that's what I've been telling myself since I got my first curse... I'm still human... now it's, I'm still a guy...'

"So people treat you a little differently? I don't see how that's too much of a problem...", Sokka countered.

Another sigh escaped the girl, "Yeah, that in itself hasn't been too much of a problem unless someone sees the change... It's... The real issue is harder to explain than that..." Seeing the expression on her companion's face, she continued, "Here's an example, 'Do guys giggle?'"

"Ah... no?"

Ryoga shook her head at the way Sokka's voice portrayed his thought about her question being a trick question. "Yeah, they don't... but what do you think I just did a little while ago without even thinking about it...", she asked, "I didn't even realize I was doing it until after I was done..."

The watertribesman scratched the side of his head at that, "Ok... I guess I can see why you'd be thinking about that, but how does that work into huge issue?"

Green eyes looked over at the blue eyed boy for a few seconds in silence before the girl let out a growl of frustration, "Just forget it... you probably wouldn't understand anyways..."

Sokka jerked his head back at that and blinked a few times, "What? What's that about?"

"Just forget it, ok", the martial artist snapped back with a wave of her hand, surging forward in a leap that put a good twenty meters between the pair. She didn't even look behind her when the boy yelled, "Hey, wait up!"

--

Meanwhile in another part of the swamp, a redhead shivered as she let out a disgusted groan, stopping stock still in the middle of splashing through the ever present greenish water. After a moment, she closed her eyes and stated, "I don't even want to know what I just stepped on...", before continuing her trek almost as if it never had happened. Katara just looked at the elder girl from the corner of her eye, a small grin on her face, though she herself shivered a bit in empathy.

A few moments of silence later, the waterbender tried to start their conversation back up to break the silence and get Ranma's mind off whatever she just stepped in. "So, you were saying you had three main fiancées... Ukyo, Akane and...", Katara started, stumbling over the last one.

"Xian Pu", the redhead supplied back, half looking to the side where the other blue clad girl kept pace. A slight grin broke out as she continued, "Probably have an easier time saying Shampoo, though. Took me a while to really figure out how to say her name right."

"Ok", the brunette replied in acceptance, "So, how long have you been engaged to them?"

Ranma's face turned thoughtful for a second before replying, "Well, from what my pop says, I've been engaged to a Tendo girl since before I was born. The problem is that Tendo Soun had three daughters and Akane's just the one that got thrown on me around a year or so ago. So you could say I've been engaged to her for either seventeen years or just over one."

"Ukyo's an easier answer", she continued with a slight grin. "Pop got me engaged to her when we were six, so I guess it's been just over ten years with her", Ranma supplied, though her grin shifted to a full frown for the coming statement, "That's also when the damned panda stole her families yatai and ditched her on the side of the road..."

"That's... that's horrible", Katara cried out, fully turning towards the elder female with a wave of a hand. "Why would someone do that to a young girl!?"

"Cause pop's a no-good greedy bastard of a panda", Ranma said with a shrug, though her voice showed her own displeasure. "Now I'm stuck with trying to clean up the messes he made...", she finished off her explanation with a disgusted look on her face and a foul taste in her mouth.

Silence reined over the pair for a bit after that as they made their way up and out of the water. Giving a quick look around, both sets of blue eyes recognized the coming nightfall, which was more pronounced as the light was already filtered greatly through the thick canopy. "I guess we should settle down for the night...", Katara admitted, looking over to her company.

Nodding, Ranma agreed, "Yeah, you're probably right. It's not like we'll be able to see anyone else in the dark, hell, we're more likely to lose ourselves if it gets any darker than this." Taking another quick look around, the redhead observed, "This place seems good..."

With a silent nod, the brunette moved over to a large tree root and sat back against it. Watching her companion in the darkening light, she saw Ranma gathering up fall wood that was scattered around the area. After fishing out a rather large fallen limb out of the water, she dragged it back up near the impromptu camp. Then, pulling a ribbon from somewhere on her person and snapping it straight and rigid, Ranma sliced up the limb into pieces small enough for a small campfire.

It was only a little while later there was a small fire going, providing enough light for Katara to see Ranma start pulling off her pants. "What are you doing that for", she asked with a quizzical look on her face as Ranma pulled the last leg out.

After a bit of grumbling and making a face, the redhead reached down on one of her legs and pulled off something, "I finally got tired of having leeches on me..."

Katara blinked a few times as she saw the pant-less female flick the thing in her hand back into the water nearby, with a soft plunk sounding out, before reaching back to her leg and pulling off another little black object. Slowly, the waterbender's blue eyes drifted to her own legs and she let out a disgusted shiver before ripping off her own pants. "Eww... Gross...", she complained as she pulled off a couple of her own swamp borne friends.

Her hands stopped and her head shot up as Ranma's voice broke out in laughter a moment later. Katara could feel her face heat up even as she cried out, "What?!"

Mastering her laughter, Ranma waved a hand dismissively, "Nothing... just the look on your face and your reaction. I mean, come on, these bastards are always found in swamps..."

Hearing that, the waterbender huffed a bit, "Well sorry, Ms Know-it-all... We don't have leeches where I'm from and I haven't had to wallow through swamps on this trip before now..."

Seeing Katara cross her arms and turn away slightly, the redhead deflated some, "Geez... sorry..." Rubbing the back of her neck, she went on, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings any... I just... sorry."

An uncomfortable silence fell between the pair which was only filled by the sounds of the popping fire and that of Ranma wringing out her pants and pulling them back on. A bit later, the younger girl let out a large sigh and started pulling her own pants back on while saying, "Ranma... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have snapped at you."

The redhead let out one of her own sighs before replying, "It's ok..." She looked over at Katara, developing a grin though, as she asked, "So... did you get all the bastards off ya?"

"By the Moon, I hope so", the longer haired girl exclaimed in response, making a face that set both girls off in laughter. After a while, it boiled down to smiles as they watched the fire burn before them. When Ranma idly tossed another chunk of wood onto the fire, Katara asked up, "So... you've told me about Akane and Ukyo... What about Shampoo?"

"What about her", Ranma countered in a strained, even voice.

Katara picked up on the vibes the redhead was giving off but decided to continue on, though with a slight uneasiness in her voice, "Um... well, how exactly did you get engaged to her..." After a moment, she added, "and what happened to cause..."

"Me not to like her", the martial artist finished off with a raised eyebrow. Seeing the slight nod from the waterbender, Ranma let out a breath through her nose and looked into the fire for a few seconds, as if collecting her thoughts. "If you want to know that, you need to know about how screwed up the some of the Amazon's laws are..."

While Ranma explained about the 'Outsider' laws, along with a general overview of the Amazonian way of life, Katara listened in rapture as the darkness encroached around them. The redhead kept the fire fed, fending off the darkness with a flickering orange light which danced off the girl's faces. Eventually, Ranma took a breath and finished up, "...and because her own damned pride was hurt, she decided to give me that freaking 'Kiss of Death'. Kuh Lon told me later, after Jusendo, that Xian Pu didn't even have to give me that damn kiss..."

"Because of that, I had to constantly watch my back and fight her off as me and pops tried to escape China and get back to Japan", she explained with a bitter tone in her voice. "Almost two full months of that shit", she practically yelled out into the growing night. "Then, once I do make it back to Japan, she follows me there and tries to continue hunting me down... only after she finds out about my curse does she do a one eighty and gives me the 'Kiss of Marriage'." Katara watches in silence as the other girl takes a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, "She then treats it like the whole time she was trying to kill me never happened..."

"You're kidding...", Katara whispered before raising her voice up to normal levels, "How can she do something that drastic? I mean, from killing to... kissing?" Her face showed she was guessing at the end, but her voice still held the major part of pure disbelief.

"That's exactly what happened", the redhead replied. "Though, if that was all that happened, I'd have been a lucky man. No, it moved on from there to her trying to fight my other fiancées along with poisonings, potions, spells, blackmail, trickery... You get the idea, right?" Seeing the mute nod from the brunette, Ranma continued on, "It was really trying at times, I'll admit, but I was able to handle things... up until the wedding..."

"The wedding?" came the confused reply, as if someone had started talking about fish and moved to Firebending techniques.

Ranma waved it off while letting out a breath, "Sorry... I guess I should tell you that at Jusendo I practically had Akane die in my own two hands..." There was a gasp but Ranma went on, "Thankfully, by some miracle, she started breathing again and I didn't lose her that day... Me and Akane were so messed up from that and our fathers are total dipshits who decided, that since I killed a god to save her, that I loved her enough to marry her." A bout of wry laughter escaped the redhead before she said, "You know, the funny thing is, that if the wedding hadn't been completely trashed by my other fiancées and their suitors, I'd have said yes..."

Katara didn't know exactly what to say to the ranting redhead on the other side of the fire and stared in wonder as she saw Ranma's face show pure anger and clench her fists so tightly she thought she'd start seeing blood drip from them. "Oh, no... It wasn't the fact that she destroyed the wedding, along with everyone else; I could brush that off since, after the fact, I realized I would have been making a bad mistake if I said yes." Ranma's blue eyes narrowed and she dragged her stormy orbs to look into the wide blues across from her, "No... it was the fact that she promised me afterwards that she'd stop all that shit; along with Koh Lon, who talked me into becoming an ally to the tribe, removing me and any descendants from the 'Outsider Laws'. Then, then the purple headed bitch goes and tries to give Akane and Ukyo the 'Kiss of Death' since she can't go against me personally. Luckily, I was able to stop her in time..."

The sounds of heavy breathing permeated the air for a while until Ranma took a deep breath before letting out a cynical chuckle as she stared into the fire, "In all reality, she's not a fiancée anymore, but after so long and the way she keeps coming after me anyways, it's hard to tell the difference. I mean, the last time I saw her was the incident I just told you about and that was only two days before me and Ryoga were sent here..." Finishing up, she looked back at her silent companion and cringed, "Er... sorry, Katara... I guess I went a little off there... I didn't mean to freak out on you."

A few moments passed before the girl responded in a voice that was disjointed to the look on her face, "No... No, it's ok, Ranma... Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll call it a night..."

Seeing the brunette push off the root enough to lay down, facing away from the fire and the fiery headed girl, Ranma let out a low sigh and threw another couple chunks of wood on the fire. Then, settling in herself, she spoke out into the night, "'Night, Katara..."

--

'Gods... I never knew how good I had it being able to piss standing up...', Ryoga complained in her head as she finished with the early morning nature call. Pulling up her loincloth and black pants, she tightened her belt once more and stepped away, back into the morning mists. 'At least I can piss without getting it all over myself now...'

At the end of that thought, the jade haired fighter stopped walking and winced, 'I can't believe I just took pride in the fact that I can now piss as a girl...' Letting out a groan, she started moving her feet once more, trying to make her way back to the place she and Sokka had camped out for the night.

The swampy forest gave off a slightly spooky atmosphere this morning, not that it affected the hardened warrior walking through it... much. Still, it left her uneasy, the way the fog seemed to give off a light blue-green glow in the dim morning light, along with the way it seemed to encroach on her and fade back as if it had a will of its own. Hell, the fact that she could barely see five meters in front of her was bad enough in her own mind, but add in the feeling of something watching her and even Ryoga was put on edge.

Choosing to play it safe versus hurting herself in her near blindness, the emerald eyed girl slowly made her way back to camp, cursing her earlier decision to go farther away to do her business, just in case Sokka woke up and heard her. Still, her shyness about it had caused her to move farther out and she was paying for it now by having to work her way back at a slower pace as the fog thickened after she had made her way out. 'At least I don't have that blasted directional curse anymore...', Ryoga consoled herself.

With that in mind, it was only a matter of time before she reached the camp her and Sokka had shared the night before. A quick look around had her blinking a few times as she looked and failed to find the blue clad fighter where he was sleeping not too long ago. Crossing her arms, Ryoga looked the camp over with another eye and noticed the spot where the fire had been was still smoldering which meant the boy probably planned on coming back. There was also a lack of scuffle marks in the dirt, which meant that he left of his own free will, though she couldn't really find any tracks either, making it hard to tell where the younger fighter had gone either...

Letting out a sigh, the green haired teen sat back against the tree they had made camp under. 'I guess he's probably off doing the same I was...', she thought, a slight flush appearing unbidden but also unnoticed. 'Oh well...', she gave with a mental shrug, 'He can handle himself and it's not like we found anything other than ourselves yesterday while wandering around.' For some reason, Sokka's reaction to her walking up while he was performing business entered her mind, causing her to laugh out loud. 'That _would_ be hilarious, but I'd hate to have it done to me...', she thought in guilty mirth afterwards.'

Ryoga shook her head a moment later, causing her jade hair to swing a bit, 'No... I'd probably faint from embarrassment, like any other time a girl and I got in an embarrassing situation...' Blinking a bit at her thought and cocking her head to the side, Ryoga pondered on that, 'Hmm... I wonder...' Placing a hand to her chin in thought, she continued, 'Ranma's had this curse for over a year now and every time I've seen him with a girl, he never passes out... well, due to embarrassment at least.' She grinned at the images of mallets, giant spatulas and bonbori smashing up side her rival's head.

'Heh, serves him right', he thought with a wider grin before looking contemplative once more, 'but still, he has a get up on me with girls...' Ryoga halted and blinked once more, 'Wait, what if the whole reason he doesn't pass out is because of his curse?' Looking into the smoldering chunks of ass, Ryoga pondered on that before a smile grew on her lips, 'and since I have the same curse now... That means I won't pass out anymore!' A moment later a small cry of, "Yatta!" echoed into the mists.

'With that taken care of, there's nothing that can hold me down! Hell, I've even got the family curse cured, too!', Ryoga exclaimed in her mind, a giant fanged smile plastered on her face. After a few long moments though, that smile gave way as her shoulders drooped and her head dropped towards her chest, 'The family curse...'

The thud of a fist hitting dirt followed by soft sniffs from a teenage female filled the air as a memory came unbidden to the forefront of Ryoga's mind.

It wasn't until a good while later before the fanged warrior came out of the funk she was under. When she did though, Ryoga looked around and wondered what was taking Sokka. 'It shouldn't have taken this long...', she thought as she stood up and brushed off the back of her pants absently. "Well, this is just great...", she muttered under her breath. "He's probably lost in the fog..."

Taking a quick look to where she had slept and the direction she went when nature called her, she guessed the direction Sokka might have gone based off the spot he was sleeping at. Giving off a quick shrug, Ryoga muttered into the still morning air, "Guess it's better than nothing..."

With that, the once lost youth found herself walking into the blue-green mists in what might be a futile attempt to find Sokka. Futile it might have seemed, but green eyes kept a look out through the low visibility for any sign of movement as she trudged into the cool waters of the swamp once again. The sounds of her legs moving forward caused the splashes to echo off nearby unseen trees as Ryoga made her way.

Every once in a while, while moving through the water, Ryoga would stop and let the echoes fade away. She'd then listen for any other sounds of movement nearby, but each and every time she only heard silence under the normal sounds of the swamp wildlife. Sometimes she would let out an annoyed growl but, every time, she would just start her trek back up at that slow and steady pace. That is, until she saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye...

With a jerk of her head, Ryoga's emerald eyes locked onto what looked like a human looking shadow in the fog. It was just barely visible as an outline through the swirling mists and at this point, she would take it for what she thought it was; one of her friends. "Oi! Hold up", the martial artist called out, waving a hand in a wide arc above her as she thrust herself in the direction of the person.

As she strove to close the distance, the figure seemed to move away at nearly the same speed, though. With a frustrated growl, Ryoga surged forward, intent on catching up with whoever it was she was chasing. Whoever it was, they had to know where her friends were, at least that's what she thought right before the figure disappeared before her. A moment later, Ryoga burst through a small wall of drooping tree limbs, brushing the leaves and twigs out of her face with a wave of her hands to clear her sight. As soon as she could see clearly again, the martial artist stopped dead in her tracks before whispering one word: "Akari..."

There in the small clearing Ryoga had stumbled upon sat one person she knew couldn't have been... but there she was sitting on a fallen log, bathed in the soft glow of the morning mists. In those few sweet seconds of hearing the girls name bouncing off the surrounding trees, Ryoga soaked in Akari's bright azure eyes while relishing in the sight of the girl's long cerulean tresses as they waivered in Ryoga's gaze. Even the cloths Akari wore were the same as the last time Ryoga had seen her at the Unryu ranch; brown overalls over a light blue long sleeved shirt and boots made to muck around in the mud.

A silent tear slipped out of a watery green eye and slid down Ryoga's cheek unnoticed as the once eternal wanderer stood and looked on at the person before her. Enraptured as she was, Ryoga could do nothing but drink in the sight... until the girl spoke out, her softly whispered words echoing her sadness and regret into the clearing as loudly as a thunderclap, "Why weren't you there?"

With those words, Ryoga's legs gave way and she fell to her knees, though her mind registered nothing of this. All she could do was keep her eyes locked on the girl before her through an increasingly watery vision, as she reached out unconsciously with a reaching imploring hand while her mouth tried to form words her throat wouldn't create. Eventually, her sight became too blurry and Ryoga blinked away the tears from her eyes, letting them run out of her reddening eyes and down her cheeks. In an instant, the flash of darkness it took her eyelids to cover her jade irises and clear her eyes, the girl before the martial artist vanished, as if she was never even there...

For a moment, Ryoga just knelt there, looking at the empty space Akari Unryu once held. The next, she was franticly jerking her eyes around to find some trace of the girl who shouldn't have been there... She found none. She knew why, too, as the memories from before resurged into her conscious thought.

The memories played, even though she didn't want to see them, and Ryoga hugged herself and shivered. Tears continued to roll down her face through closed eyes as she let out a sobbing torrent. A few moments later, the sobbing transformed into a near silent shuddering that gained in volume as the seconds ticked passed.

Then, all at once, a primal scream of despair escaped the distraught warrior as she threw her head back and locked her hands into her hair. The mass of energy that escaped with that scream shot straight upwards, vaporizing the canopy as it continued in a column of vivid greenish-blue radiance.

--

Elsewhere in the sea of trees and water, a pair of wizened eyes narrowed, as the owner let out a low hum of thought. Taking note of where the column of light came from, the figure grabbed hold of a nearby vine and took flight into the swamp...

--

Pushing limb and leaf away from his face, Sokka continued his search for his lost companions, trying to find the source of the scream he had heard echoing from the mists. Thankfully, shortly after that, the blue-green haze had lightened off, as if burning away under the morning sun, which greatly relaxed the young warrior. He tensed right back up, though, as he entered a clearing to find one of his companions kneeling under a hole in the canopy, which let a beam of sunlight around twenty meters wide through.

"Hey...", he started to say to get her attention, but his voice cracked and failed before he could get farther than that monosyllabic word. Swallowing, he took a few steps out of the branches and towards the downed tan colored fighter before trying again, "Hey, Ryoga... You ok?"

Ryoga just seemed to ignore the question, as if she never even registered it being said in the first place. It wasn't until the brown haired male crossed the last couple dozen meters that he saw the look on the older fighter's face and the stain of tears that ran down her upturned face. The green eyes were reddened as they looked up into the blue morning sky through the giant hole above her, though if they really saw anything, Sokka couldn't tell...

Placing a hand, almost nervously, on the kneeling fighter's shoulder, he called to her again in a soft voice, "Ryoga... are you ok?"

The feeling of minor warmth and slight pressure on her shoulder seemed to eke out a bit of life from Ryoga, as she turned her head slightly and brought her eyes to bear on the boy. Sokka tried to contain a slight shiver at the voice she replied with, one of a person who had given up all hope of being sane, "I don't know... "

Swallowing again, Sokka looked directly at the other fighter and asked, "What happened?"

"I saw her... Akari... but I couldn't of...", she replied in the same tone, "it's... it's impossible!"

Placing his other hand on the girl's empty shoulder, he had to ask, "How is seeing her impossible..."

Ryoga took her own turn swallowing as another set of tears escaped her already puffy eyes. When she did speak, it was barely above the whisper but, even so, her voice was as loud as an explosion next to Sokka's head, "Because she's dead..."

--

"She died when I was eight...", Katara explained in a low saddened tone as she walked slowly next to the redhead.

Ranma looked at her through eyes that could empathize with that pain. "I'm sorry... How exactly..."

Katara let out a sigh and looked up at the thick canopy, which let beams of light through at random spots, "She was killed during a Fire Nation raid on the Southern Watertribe..."

"I'm sorry", the elder of the pair repeated. There was a moment of silence before Ranma offered up, "I know what it's like to grow up without a mother. I lost mine when I was six."

The brunette let out a sigh in understanding upon hearing that. "How did yours..."

A wry grin tweaked at the redhead's mouth as she replied, "She's not dead, if that's what you're asking... I just... lost her."

Blue eyes blinked in confusion while Katara put a finger to her chin as she tried to interpret Ranma's words and drew a blank, "How exactly do you lose your mother?"

"Oh, it's pretty easy", Ranma replied in a mirthless voice, "First you have your father trick you when you're a toddler into signing a seppuku contract to become a 'man among men', whatever that means. Then, you have him take you on a ten year training trip across the world, leaving your mother behind with just the contract and a honor sword. After that, you have your father curse you into the exact opposite of manliness, like a girl for example. Finally, you find out your mother will really go through with the seppuku contract if she ever found out about the curse..."

The waterbender walking beside her looked completely taken aback, "That's horrible! Did she really try to make you kill yourself?!"

"No, thankfully", Ranma replied with a slight snort, "It only took me jumping off a cliff to catch her to prove my 'manliness' though... and even after that she still holds the contract over my head, so it's like walking on rice paper around her..." Finishing that, she let out a labored sigh, "_That_ is what it takes to 'lose' your mother when she's still alive and around to interact with you..."

Silence reined between the pair for a while before Katara asked, "So... you only had your father, the one who sold you and set up the fiancées, since you were six?"

"Unfortunately", was the quick reply with a shrug added in.

"Wow...", she continued, amazed at what she could only guess at Ranma's life was like. "At least I had Gran-Gran and Sokka, along with the rest of the tribe..."

Ranma cocked her head to the side at that, "What about your dad? Don't tell me he..."

A hand quickly waved the second question off, "No, no... Dad's still alive... I hope... He and the rest of the warriors from our tribe left earlier this year to help fight off the Fire Nation." She looked up into the branches above her once more, but not really looking at them, "I miss him..."

"I'm sorry..."

--

"It's alright... I'm to blame anyways..."

Sokka's brow twisted in confusion, "Why do you say that?"

The green haired girl kneeling on the soft marshy ground held her hands before her, looking at them as she replied, "I wasn't there... When she needed me, I wasn't there..."

"Sorry... I don't understand...", was all Sokka could say, taking a seat on the ground before the elder teen.

Ryoga just let out a haggard breath and let her hands drop to her knees. "Akari felt bad one day... I thought she just had a normal fever or a cold", Ryoga started to explain. "I told her I'd go and get her some medicine. I even took a map with me and everything." A couple of tears escaped her green eyes as her breath became ragged, "It only took me an hour to get to the store and buy the medicine... but damn it, the store was in Nagasaki!"

"Nagasaki?" The name meant nothing to the watertribesman and he was still confused...

Whether noticing Sokka's confusion or not, the girl yelled out, "It's three hundred kilometers from Tokyo, where I started! My fucking family curse struck again, getting me lost! 'At least it was only a fever', I told myself as I tried to make my way back to the farm."

Sokka stayed quiet as he knew the girl was ranting but needed Ryoga needed to get it off her chest. The fighter was clenching and releasing her hands into fists whether she knew it or not as she continued, "It took me two weeks... two damn weeks, which I wandered all over Japan... Trying to find my way back and when I do, her grandfather throws me out of the house as soon as I step into it..." Sokka hears the fighter take a deep breath, "He told me how he came home to find her alone and ill... She told him I'd be back with medicine... It wasn't a cold..."

As she broke down before him, Sokka just continued to silently listen to the words between sobs, "They tried... tried everything they... they said there was n-nothing th-they could do! H-he told m-me... th-he last thi-ing she said w-was, 'He'll b-be he-he-here!'" At that point, the sobs wracked her entire frame and things stayed that way for a bit before she shocked her listener into jumping a few inches off the ground when she slammed a fist elbow deep into the mossy soil. "SHE DIED FOUR DAYS BEFORE I GOT THERE! I NEVER MADE IT BACK", she screamed out.

The minutes passed in silence before she finally pulled her arm out of the ground, as if it was an afterthought. The swordsman before her just felt a shiver run up and down his spine before he finally allowed his voice to break the silence, "I'm sorry... I know how you feel..." This caused the girl to raise her emerald colored eyes to look into his azure, before blinking. "I fell in love with a girl name Yue who was the princess of the Northern Watertribe... During an attack, I wasn't able to defend the moon spirit, Tui, and because of that we almost lost the battle." Running a hand through his hair, Sokka looked to the side and took a breath. "Because Yue was saved as a child by Tui, she alone had the power to save the moon spirit. I could only stand and watch as she gave her life so Tui could continue on living..."

Sokka turned his gaze skyward and let out a deep breath, "Now, every time I look at the moon, I just think about how I lost the girl I love..."

Each of the fighters looked on into the forest, their eyes not seeing the reality before them in favor of times past, which existed only in the reaches of their own minds. Time dragged on for what seemed like forever, until the blue eyed youth broke it by asking, "What was she like?"

--

"I don't know what to say... she was my mom...", Katara said, giving a slight shrug as she touched a finger to her chin. "Gran-Gran says I look a lot like her, which I like", she mused with a smile on her lips, "but what I really remember was how she used to tell me and Sokka stories."

A soft sigh born of happy memories escaped the waterbender as she gained a 'far away' look in her eyes. "She'd tell us stories, both fictional and those of lore, and we would both sit and listen while she did other things while weaving the tale", she explained before letting out a small giggle, "Mom seemed to tell the best stories while she was cooking. I didn't think about it at the time, but I think she saved the best for those times just to keep Sokka and me calm while waiting for the food to finish cooking."

Ranma smiled slightly, hearing the bit of humor in Katara's voice, "She sounds like a great mom."

"Yeah, she was...", the brunette agreed, her smile turned bittersweet, "All three of us took it really hard when we found out..." A deep breath later and the smile was gone, "It hit the entire tribe hard, really... We still don't know why they singled her out in the attack that day..."

Katara's stormy azure eyes hardened as she clenched her hands into fists while twisting her face into one of pure confidence, "If I ever find out who killed her, I'll... I'll..."

The unfinished promise of pain hung in the air as the brown haired teen held her strong visage for a long while as the pair continued moving. Eventually, though, she released her hands and let them drop to her sides. Seeing this, Ranma looked ahead and nodded to herself before saying, "Hey, let's take a quick break once we reach that tree over there... We've been moving half the day already and, I don't know about you, but I could some grub."

A thoughtful 'Hmm' was all that escaped the waterbender as they waded out of the swampy water. After a moment for Ranma to shake her legs to get some of the water out of her pants, while Katara just bended hers dry, they sat against the base of the large tree. It was while the fiery haired girl was reaching into her hidden pocket space what her current traveling companion spoke up again, "You know, I'm glad you told me about tying the bottom of your pants legs closed to keep those leeches out..."

Ranma just grinned a bit as she pulled a small wrapped bundle from inside her shirt and witnessed the other girl shudder out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, same here. I'm just annoyed that I didn't remember before the first night..." Making a face, she admitted, "I can still feel 'em on me... Eww..."

Amused a bit at the antics of the redhead, Katara relaxed some and let out a small smile. She watched as a smile formed on Ranma's face as well, as the martial artist started to unwrap the bundle saying, "Me and Ryoga found some trail rations while we were still in..."

Her words were cut short as a scream broke out into the air, causing both girls to jerk their heads up in high alert. In an instant, both of them were on their feet, looking around for anything and everything. The package that was in the hands of the redhead was rewrapped and hidden almost as fast, to be replaced by a blue ribbon in her hands. Almost as fast, her previously unbound hair was braided and tied into the known pigtail, though it hung down almost past her shoulder blades.

"What the hell was that?"

Shifting her eyes around the area slowly, Ranma replied in a low voice, "Don't know, but it's nearby..." Listening into the now silent forest, both of them could make out the din of combat somewhere nearby, but the rebounding sounds made pinpointing it almost impossible.

"Any idea where...", Katara started only to bite off any other words that she might of asked as a beam of energy shot out of the darkness. It flew well far away from the pair, but still caused them to blink in surprise. "Oookay...", she said after a second, "I guess we know where it's coming from now..."

She glanced over just after to see a quick grin forming on the redhead's face, which grew until it almost reached from ear to ear. Ranma knew as soon as she felt the chi wave just who was fighting nearby and after a second, she let out a whoop of joy. "_Hell yeah_! Found Ryoga AND a fight! Come on", Ranma cried out right before going from standstill to top speed in a running jump that rocketed her almost forty meters from the shocked waterbender before Katara shook herself out of it and sprinted after her.

--

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"I don't know, but these vines keep trying to grab me", Sokka yelled back as he brought his right arm down to chop at said vines once more, hacking off another bunch. It didn't seem to matter much to the plants as the ends just slid closer to try and ensnare the watertribesman once more.

"I've never seen anything like this before", a younger voice admitted before the sound of air exploding against something sounded out. Aang wiped an arm across his forehead, ridding it of the sweat that the high powered Airbending caused. He'd flung a few high volume blasts already, but it seemed to do nothing to his target but knock it back a few steps.

As it was, the giant swamp vine monster was still on its feet and slowly advancing on the trio. About the only thing that seemed to work so far was either a cutting weapon or Ryoga's 'Shi Shi Hokodan', which happened to burn off one of the creature's arms. The problem was the fact that the arm just grew right back a moment later and acted like the attack had never hit it in the first place. Once bitten though, the monster tried avoiding the blasts and once seeing this Ryoga held back on firing them off indiscriminately.

"Great...", the green haired fighter dryly voiced, holding her belt in her right hand like one would a sword. A moment later, she was diving to the side to avoid a hulking arm as it swung down on her position.

The next moment, she rolled to her feet and charged in at the beast, trying to get inside where it would have a harder time hitting her. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw the arm rear back, prepared to drive back at the moving martial artist. As it just as she was preparing to make another evasive dive, a blast of wind flew around her as she saw the creature stagger under the blow of another of Aang's attacks.

Grinning like a wolf, Ryoga sprinted the last distance between her and the giant's leg. Reaching it, she span around and sliced into it with her 'Iron Cloth' belt, expecting it to slide right through, like a hot knife would through butter. With that in mind, when her arm jerked to a halt halfway though, she blinked a few time and just stood there for a second.

A cry from Sokka was all the warning she got, allowing the fanged fighter to halt the flow of chi into the improvised weapon, causing it to go limp in her hands. The next thing she knew, pain had flared across her entire left side, which was followed by the feeling of forced flight; both caused by a sweeping tangle of vines which made up one of the giant's arms. The airborne fighter crashed back into the water, sending twin walls of water up into the air in her wake as she slid to a stop.

Aang watched her trip long enough to see a flash of green break the surface along with a gasp of air before turning his attention back to the beast. 'How are we going to stop this thing', he asked himself as he fired off a weak blast of air to grab its attention away from the recovering Ryoga. Once the writhing mass of vines had turned around though, the bald boy looked lost as to what to do next.

A moment later, he was thanking the spirits when slight distortions in the air flew from his left towards the monster, cutting into one of its arms causing it to fall off in three huge chunks. An instant later, a line of water shot passed him on his right, like a paper thin wave, to slice off the creature's other arm from underneath almost at the shoulder.

Looking over his shoulder, Aang could see two figures in blue charging towards him, causing him to smile. He heard one call his name while the other smirked and yelled, "Hey, need some help?"

The tattooed boy smiled quickly, calling back, "Katara, Ranma!" The smile dropped just as fast, though, as they ran up and he looked back towards their aggressor. "We can't stop this thing, it just keeps attacking..."

Even as they looked upon it, the thing's arms were regenerating, negating the damage they had just done to it. Their observations were distracted, though, when a cry of accomplishment broke out from the side and they saw Sokka run over towards them. "Finally broke free of those damn things...", he muttered before blinking at the two girls who stood beside Aang. Smiling, he called out a quick, "Hey", in greeting before he looked at the creature with the rest of them.

"So... any ideas", Aang asked up to anyone who would supply an answer.

Ranma just shrugged, "Beat it down until it doesn't move anymore?"

"Tried that", a certain fanged fighter growled as she shook her head as if to shake the cobwebs out. "Thing just heals and comes back, like this", she explained, pointing to the nearly fully complete monster.

"Hmm...", Sokka let out in thought, narrowing his eyes as he examined the mass of moving vines. "It's taking longer for it to heal this time...", he muttered to himself before looking over at the others. "Okay, Katara cut the left arm off, Aang has the right... Ranma, you do whatever you did on the head while Ryoga and I rush in. If we do enough damage at once, maybe it won't be able to grow back!"

With a plan, any plan, in place, they nodded and with a yell burst into action. Katara and Aang made circles with their arms or staff, respectively, until they flung an arm and staff straight up, causing twin lines of water to shoot towards the creature. Ranma, on the other hand, flashed out with her arms making multiple grabbing motions into the air, causing small waves of shimmering air to fly towards her intended target area. True to form, Sokka and Ryoga charged forward, each giving their own battle cry to increase the effect of adrenalin in their veins.

Ryoga's land speed, having grown up on the go since a young age, was considerably greater than the other weapon user, her reactions also much sharper due to a life of constant fighting. That said, the tan clothed fighter noticed the signs of the monster dodging the attacks and adjusted for it, though she knew it was too late and just smirked as an arm, its head and most of its right side were sliced off. The smirk changed to a scowl and narrowed eyes a moment later, as she adjusted her plans once more once she reached the creature and thrust her legs under her, throwing herself into a leaping charge.

Sokka was just about to reach the other side when he noticed Ryoga leap at the injured being. A moment later, he slid to a stop, sloshing water in a blinding wave, as two people burst through the vines on his side. The flying figures barely missed clipping the startled weapon user, who numbly followed their short flight which led to the two tumbling into the water nearby. As Sokka watched the two pick themselves up out of the disturbed muddy swamp, the other three were running up on their position. With a quick shake of her head, Ryoga flung water out of the jade hair topping it along with clearing out her eyes enough to glare at what looked to be the man she knocked out of the vine beast.

The elder man performed almost the same thing as Ryoga, shaking the water from his hair and eyes before looking over the group that had gathered. The stark difference between them and he was the fact that while they wore clothing, he wore little more than a large loincloth of vegetation. Ranma and Ryoga quickly saw the same build as Genma Saotome in him and subconsciously wondered if he was of the same mindset as the aged sometimes-panda.

"Why did you attack us? Did you call me here just to kill us", the youngest of the group demanded through a heavy glare.

The brow of the man creased as he looked down upon the boy. "I didn't call you here", he said in a slight drawl, "and I didn't come here to kill you. I just came to stop you from destroying the forest!"

Quite a few eyebrows were quirked from the grouped teens as Ranma replied, "Uh... we aren't destroying anything..." She flicked her eyes around the area as she said this, reaching up and rubbing the back of her neck, "Er... well, except for this area and that was your fault for attacking us..."

An eyebrow twitched slightly at Ranma's last words, but instead pointed at the one with green hair in their midst. "Right... I know I saw a column of... something... shred the treetops earlier. It had the same color of the attacks she used on me!"

Ryoga blinked a few times and looked thoughtful before flinching, "Er... Sorry... I didn't mean to do that, I just sorta... lost it..."

The man seemed to look over the teen for a few seconds, as if his observations could pierce through any lie she might be telling. "I'll let it go this time, since the damage to the forest was minimal", he drawled before giving a sigh and placing a hand to his forehead, "Alright then, who are you kids and why are you in this forest, anyways?"

"Well, we're here cause Aang felt something calling to him, telling him to land", Sokka explained. Seeing the confused curl of the older male's eyebrows, he added in a dry voice, "He's the Avatar... stuff like this just happens..."

The man's dark green eyes blinked before he looked over towards the younger male was pointing and found a boy with a blue arrow tattooed on his bald head. "The Avatar...", he half muttered to himself before letting out a hum that one might expect from a wizened sage but not from a mostly naked man in a swamp. "If this is the Avatar, then we need to talk. Come, follow me", he directed to the group before turning around and walking away.

"Should we trust him", Katara asked, eyeing the retreating man warily.

Aang just shook his head at the situation before walking after the man, "I don't know, but he's the first person we've found here. He might know what was calling me and where Appa and Momo are..." It didn't take anything more than that before the rest of the group gave a collective shrug and followed. They figured that they had beaten the man once, so it wasn't like he was going to start something up again... they hoped.

--

The group didn't have to follow the man long until they found themselves climbing a tree that put all the other's they'd seen to shame. It was at least five times as tall and it's limbs seemed impossibly spread out. When the man started climbing what looked like a path in the giant roots at the base of the trunk, Katara called up to him, "So, who are you?"

The man smiled as he looked around at the forest top that they could see at their height, "I protect the swamp from folks who want to hurt it." A moment later, a vine slid out of the way of the group as he waved his hands onward. "Like this fellow, with his big knife and the lass with the light show", he added, a wry grin on his face.

Sokka just shrugged it off, saying, "See, completely reasonable explanation..., while sheathing his bone sword. "It's just a guy defending his home... No crazy monsters, no weird voices... There's nothing mystical about it."

As they neared the point where the roots became the full vertical trunk of the giant tree, the man gave a off a deep chuckle, "That's where you're wrong, lad. The swamp _is_ a mystical place, alright. It's sacred..." As he reached a spot known only to him, he turned and sat down crossing his legs before him, "In fact, I reached enlightenment at this very spot beneath the Banyon Grove tree", he said, waving a hand to indicate the tree he sat upon. "I heard it calling to me, just like you did", he explained, looking pointedly at the young Avatar.

"Sure you did, old man", the redhead of the group said, but still gave the tree an intense gaze.

Said 'old man' gave a slight chuckle as he viewed the redhead looking at the tree behind him, "You see, this whole swamp is really just one tree spread out over kilometers. Branches spread, sink and then take root... then, spread some more." As he spread his arms apart, a smile grew on his face, "It's all one big living organism, just like the entire world..."

Aang looked from the area around him back to the old man as he finished talking. "I get how the tree is one big thing, but... the whole world", he asked, giving a disbelieving look.

If anything, the smile grew on the sage's face grew even wider, "Sure! Do you think you're any different than me, or your friends, or this tree?" He waved a hand out into the distance, "If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folk don't act like it." He brought the hand back to himself, and continued, "We all have the same roots and we're all branches of the same tree."

"Okay", Katara replied as she sat down with the rest following, "but I saw... a vision out there. Was that the tree trying to talk to me and if it was, what did it mean?"

The sage nodded solemnly to the waterbender, "To my understanding, it's one of the ways the swamp talks to people. You see, in the swamp we see visions of people we've lost... people we've loved... folks we think are gone..." Hearing this each youth took a different look upon themselves as he kept going in a reassuring voice, "but the swamp tells us that they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion and so is death..."

Ranma looked over to the swamp sage with a confused look, "But what about if you've never seen the person before until the vision?"

The young Avatar nodded, "Yeah, my vision was someone I'd never met."

A sly grin formed on the old man's face while he squinted an eye at the boy, "_You're_ the Avatar... you tell me."

The boy shot the sage a disgruntled look before dropping his head and pondering on it for a second. The sage could hear Aang mumble under his breath, "Time is an illusion..." The tattooed male quirked his head to the side in thought before raising it with realization in his mind, "So... it's someone I will meet!" Hearing that, the sage grinned broadly and silently nodded.

Sokka drew attention to himself once more, a moment later, by jumping to his feet and stretching while saying, "As great as this all is, we still need to find Appa and Momo..."

Ranma shifted her gaze to the smaller male when Aang replied, "I think I know how to find them." She watched him place a hand on the tree he sat upon and take a deep breath before saying, "Everything is connected..."

Her blue eyes narrowed a split second later when she felt something shoot away from the Avatar, but couldn't see what it was. The next thing she knew, Aang jumped to his feet and cried, "I've found them! We need to hurry!"

--

"Can you believe those guys? They wanted to eat Appa!"

"They did say they were sorry...", Aang replied to Sokka's loud complaint as he sat on the head of the flying bison, giving it a pat through its thick fur.

"And they gave us food", Ranma piped in happily, causing a groan from Ryoga. "You and your stomach", she muttered to the redhead, who ignored it.

Katara just smiled while shaking her head, "I'm more interested in the fact that there are waterbenders outside of the Northern and Southern Watertribes! I wonder when they found the swamp and why they settled there."

Her brother just shrugged and replied, "I'm more interested in where we're headed next."

"Well", Aang started to respond, putting a hand to his chin, "the vision I had in the swamp was of a girl around my age with a flying boar... I don't know what the boar means, but it has to mean something..." He shook his head quickly before stating, "I guess we'll have to look around until we can find something to help figure it out."

"Wait a minute...", Sokka spoke out again, "When we were talking to that old guy, Hue, about the visions, Ranma was the first to speak up about not knowing who the vision was..." All eyes turned from the blue clad boy to towards the redhead at that statement, causing the martial artist to cringe back a bit against the railing she leaned against. "So, what did you see?"

"I don't wanna...", she replied, crossing her arms before her and looking away, out towards the passing landscape.

"Come on, Ranma! Tell us what you saw", Ryoga prodded, using a voice that would annoy the girl into submission. It was supported with a few prodding voices from the other three teens as well.

They weren't prepared for it, though, when the Ranma jerked her head back around to give a piercing glare to them all while screaming, "I don't want to talk about it! Quit buggin' me!" She held the glare for a few more seconds before turning her head back out over the railing, before saying in a low voice, "Just leave it alone..."

--

End of Chapter 8

--

Author's notes:

So, I guess a lot of you are wondering what happened to the chapter numbers and why you guys got a notice that I posted a new chapter about two to three weeks ago... Well, the first one is easy to explain; I joined chapters one and two into the new chapter one. This means the first chapter is around 5.5k words instead of having a piddling 2.5k words. Small change, but thought I'd explain it just so you guys don't think you're crazy. –grin-

And on to why you guys got a 'new chapter posted' notice, but probably couldn't find the chapter... Yeah, that's my bad. –rubs the back of neck-

I wrote out a chapter covering the same story period as this one did, but it was only 6.5k words long and when I reread it, I saw nothing but pure crap... So I took it down with full intentions of rewriting it into the work you have just read, but ran headlong into a writer's wall. Couldn't write jack shit since then, but now I'm out of my funk and here we are. –wide smile-

Anyhow... I'm pretty sure some of you are asking why some of the characters are turning into whiny bitches... well... I'm not gonna tell ya, but it's planned and no not because I'm going to be writing tear jerker chapters from now on. At least not unless the story calls for it... –sly look-

Just to warn you, it might be a bit before I produce the next chapter though, cause I need to iron out a few things before I write it out. But once I do, it's going to be BIG with a capital 'Oh shit!'... –rubs hands together and cackles maniacally-


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